Vaccines.Me

Persistent Outbreak of Measles Despite Appropriate Prevention and Control Measures - Montana
Posted by vaccinesme on Sunday, January, 25 2009 and filed under Articles
Key topics: Measles Outbreak Vaccine Failure

Davis RM, Whitman ED, Orenstein WA, Preblud SR, Markowitz LE, Hinman AR. A persistent outbreak of measles despite appropriate prevention and control measures. Am J Epidemiol. 1987 Sep;126(3):438-49.

From January 4 to May 13, 1985, an outbreak of 137 cases of measles occurred in Montana and persisted for 12 generations of spread. A total of 114 cases occurred on the Blackfeet Indian reservation in northwest Montana. Of the 137 cases, 82 (59.9%) were in school-aged children (aged 5-19 years). Of the 114 cases on the reservation, 108 (94.7%) were classified as programmatically nonpreventable. A total of 64 (82.1%) of the 78 patients on the reservation who were born after 1956 and were above the recommended age at vaccination had a history of adequate measles vaccination. Additionally, an audit of immunization records at the schools in Browning, Montana, where most of the cases occurred, showed that 98.7% of students were appropriately vaccinated.