title: Validity of a mother's history of measles in children: a review of Indian literature.
abstract: A review of the available information on the validity of a mother's history of measles in children and its importance in Indian context is presented. A history of measles was found to have a median sensitivity (SN) of about 60% (n = 6; range 33-75) and a median specificity (SP) of about 95% (n = 5; range 79-100). A subclinical infection seems to be the most plausible explanation for the low SN. Two mechanisms for the development of subclinical infection have been suggested: (i) In infants, exposure to the virus in the households when maternal antibodies are just sufficient to prevent the disease but not the infection. (ii) In older children, exposure to a mild dose of virus outside the households. However, due to the misclassification of non measles cases as measles, the SN increases and SP decreases as the child grows older. The implications of low SN, high SP and varying predictive values of the mother's history of measles are discussed.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Datta
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007110:Immunity, Active; D007114:Immunization; D007194:India; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008457:Measles / Q000276:immunology*