MEASLES AND MEASLES VACCINATION IN AN AFRICAN VILLAGE

Over the last five years, a number of reports have appeared drawing attention to the serious results of measles in young West African children. This is borne out by observations over a three-year period on children in the village of Imesi, which showed measles to be a severe and often fatal disease. The original live attenuated measles vaccine developed by Enders has been shown to give good protection and, in combination with immune serum, has been widely used in the USA. However, the need to combine it with immune serum severely limits its usefulness, owing to the small quantities of serum available and the high cost. In the present study, the reaction produced by the original vaccine with immune serum was compared with the reaction produced by a further attenuated vaccine without serum. The latter gave significantly fewer and less severe reactions, but produced a satisfactory serological response. This new vaccine should facilitate large-scale immunization of children in areas such as West Africa where protection against measles is urgently required.