Mortality among primary and secondary cases of measles in Bangladesh.
Data were reviewed from an intensive 1975-1976 survey in two Bangladeshi villages that experienced a high incidence of measles. Mortality among secondary cases (four of 50, 8.0%) was significantly higher than that among primary cases (six of 290, 2.1%). In every case in which there was a death in a household with more than one case, it was the youngest patient who died. All children with secondary cases who died had a pre-illness weight-for-height status above the population mean. Measles mortality in Bangladesh appears to be determined by three factors: age, superinfections, and having a secondary case. The last two factors may be due to increased intrafamilial exposure to both the measles virus and the superinfecting pathogens.
Koster
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FT
Department of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 87131.
D000367:Age Factors; D001459:Bangladesh; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008457:Measles / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000401:mortality*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012189:Retrospective Studies