Measles: did we prevent the hazard or is it more hazardous now? Measles, spread and prevention in children of an Afghan migrant family in Istanbul

Abstract number: R2254

Objective: In Istanbul no proven measles case was detected since 2006 with the vaccination campaigns started in 2003. For the reason of measles detection in 2 children (9 months and 3 years old) of a family living in Istanbul, Mop-up studies performed to prevent the spread of these cases were explicated.

Cases: In Zeytinburnu district which has a low socioeconomic level and harbours most of the immigrants, people who has residential permit can get health care by 13 health posts without charge.

Since 5 different vaccination campaigns performed with success, local people supported this campaign also. Measles vaccination rates were over 95% in last 4 years.

2 consecutive cases were detected in this immigrant family which has a travel history to Iran in august 2009. When a secondary case was detected a 3 years old cousin in the same family who didn't travel, brought up the necessity to find out the unvaccinated children in the district.

As part of social mobilization studies, local administrative chiefs were informed. Field work lasted for 48 days was completed in 4 subdistricts where immigrant families lived densely. Health officials visited 22484 house and left invitations when the resident were away. In this study we found out that; 44 children were unvaccinated, 10 of them didn't get health care at all, 17 came in the last 3 months and 17 were 12–18 months old and delayed MMR vaccine.

Measles IgM was found negative in 51 children with rash in measles surveillance until today, 2 families rejected to get measles vaccine, 9 cases showed mild reactions after vaccination and 1 case was detected as an application mistake.

Conclusion: Some difficulties were lived to diagnose measles clinically in the first 2 cases can cause secondary cases and an outbreak. We took the physician's attention when some diseases are off the agenda they shouldn't be behind in differential diagnosis.