The hospital as a vector of measles in the community.
Over a 16-month period 77 consecutive cases of life-threatening measles admitted to the intensive care unit of the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital were surveyed. Twenty-eight children died and 9 were left with chronic respiratory disease. Twenty of these 77 children probably caught the disease in hospital. Of these, 10 (50%) died compared with 18 (32%) of the 57 who acquired measles in the community, confirming that hospital-acquired measles is particularly severe. It is concluded that hospitals contribute substantially to the spread of measles in the community. Optimal strategies for dealing with this problem are urgently needed.
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003428:Cross Infection; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006782:Hospitals, Special; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008457:Measles / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies