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INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Measles Mystery Baffles Officials"
Economic Times of India ( www.economictimes.com ) (08/09/02);
Koshie, Nihal
An outbreak of what at first was thought to be ordinary measles
in India's Warrangal district last month prompted local health
department officials to administer 38,000 doses of vaccine in 195
villages. The situation has baffled health investigators because
none of the victims exhibited any of the typical measles
symptoms, and while typical measles-related fatalities occur
after about a week, all 31 deaths in this outbreak occurred
within eight hours of the first symptom. Nor did this disease
appear in clusters as measles typically does; of the 56 villages
where the disease appeared, 49 reported one case each and three
villages reported two cases each. Baffling investigators even
more was the fact that blood samples taken by the National
Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICB) in New Delhi showed
only a 70 percent positive rating for measles antibodies; a
preliminary diagnosis of enteroviral encephalitis by World Health
Organization (WHO) officials was later ruled as well. The NICB
is currently conducting blood tests to isolate and culture the
virus, which some suspect may be a new and mutated strain of the
measles virus.
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