Paediatricians insist overcrowding, incomplete vaccination fuelling measles outbreaks

Paediatricians have warned that children who are unvaccinated, malnourished, and live in crowded environments are at a higher risk of measles.

The experts also noted that children living in overcrowded areas were at increased risk of spreading and contracting the highly contagious disease caused by a virus.

 The child surgeons decried the recurrent measles epidemics in Nigeria, attributing them to incomplete or non-immunisation children due to several factors.

The paediatricians reassured parents that the vaccine was safe, stating that the disease’s complications, such as blindness, and kidney and liver diseases, far outweigh any fears about the vaccine.

According to the World Health Organisation, measles is a highly contagious airborne disease that could lead to severe complications and deaths.

It adds that although measles can affect anyone, it is most common in children and can be prevented through vaccination.

Despite the availability of vaccines, the WHO noted that about 136,000 measles deaths were recorded globally, mostly among unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children under the age of five.

Recently, the WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund, noted that there has been a reduction in the vaccination rates against measles, leaving about 35 million children with partial or no protection.

In 2023, the health agency reported a 79 per cent rise in measles globally and drops in the measles vaccination, warning that the disease was still a global threat.

According Healthwise gathered that already,  Nigeria has recorded since the beginning of the year, about 29 children in Adamawa and Abuja have died from measles-related complications.

UNICEF ranked Nigeria as number one in Africa and second in the world with the highest number of malnourished children.

Malnutrition, which is the deficiency, excesses or imbalances in nutrient intake also includes wasting, stunting, underweight and deficiencies in vitamins and minerals.

 About 12 million Nigerian children out of the 35 million under-five children globally suffer from wasting which makes them more vulnerable to disease and death.

 Speaking on the issue, a paediatric surgeon at the Bayero University, Kano, Kano State, Prof Aminu Mohammad, stated that malnutrition lowers immunity in children, making them more susceptible to communicable diseases and infections.

Consequently, malnourished children who were unvaccinated for measles had a higher risk of contracting the disease.

 He noted that the rate of unvaccinated children coupled with the current economic situation in the country, which is increasing the rate of malnutrition among children, would further escalate measles-related complications and deaths.

 The don said, “Now that the situation in the country is hard, natural immunity is also affected by malnutrition. Due to the huge number of children that are malnourished, there are chances that we are going to be seeing more cases and even more complicated cases are on the high increase. Malnourished children who are not or completely vaccinated, have a higher risk of measles.

 “Malnutrition on its own lowers immunity in children, and makes them prone to communicable diseases and infections. Therefore, malnourished children are more likely to develop diseases.”

The don further noted that malnourished children due to their reduced immunity required more protection from vaccine-preventable diseases through immunisation.

 He added that measles was highly contagious, emphasising that complete immunisation was necessary to ensure adequate protection from measles and other vaccine-preventable illnesses.

 The child surgeon reassured parents that immunisations were safe and posed no present or future harm to children.

He urged parents to avail their children the benefit of being protected from vaccine-preventable diseases, complications and deaths.

“Just like the way we are on our way to eliminating polio in our environment because of the active involvement and ensuring that the nooks and crannies and hard-to-reach areas are reached. In the same vein, parents should avail their children the opportunity to have them fully immunised against these preventable diseases that can cause morbidity and mortality.

“We still have a very significant number of children that are not immunised. Therefore, we need to tighten our belts to ensure that we have reached every child and they are immunised. Otherwise, that is the reason why we have had recurrent epidemics of measles in Nigeria for decades.

“But if we are immunising our children, you will find out that even the few ones that will develop the disease, will develop a milder disease than those who are not immunised,” Mohammad said.

Mohammad who is also the President of the Medical and Dental Consultants of Association of Nigeria urged stakeholders to create more awareness of the need for child immunisation and to dispel the rumours and fears parents had about.

 Also, a professor of paediatrics at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Christopher Yilgwan, asserted that malnutrition increases the risk of contracting, suffering complications and dying from measles.

 He explained that measles triggers malnutrition since it affects the inner lining of the respiratory and digestive tract.

 The don stated that this was the reason children with measles had diarrhoea which makes them lose essential body fluids and calories.

 “Malnutrition comes with reduced immunity and reduced immunity increases the risk of having measles. The reason you see most children under five coming down with measles, especially those who are not immunised is because their body’s ability to fight infections is reduced. If an adult has a condition that reduces their immunity, such as Human immunodeficiency virus or diabetes, for instance, they are also at high risk.

“Malnutrition is a very big issue and of course where there are economic problems are parents are struggling to make ends meet, when measles comes, it will be very devastating,” he said.

 The don also stated that since measles is spread by respiratory droplets, children living in overcrowded areas were at more risk of contracting measles.

Yilgwan noted that the misconceptions about vaccines, cultural myths and poverty were factors that impacted communities’ acceptability of the vaccine.

He further noted that until factors fuelling the uptake of vaccines in some communities are dealt with, there will be progress in resolving vaccine-preventable deaths.

The paediatrician urged public health departments in every Local Government Area to increase awareness of measles and other vaccine-prevention illnesses.

The don said, “They need to enlighten people through health promotion on the need to take their children for vaccination. We can use community and religious leaders, school teachers, and peer educators to spread the gospel of vaccine-preventable illnesses.”

 He advised public health departments in communities experiencing measles outbreaks to conduct house-to-house visits to ensure every child is vaccinated.