Demographic characteristics of admitted patients of measles and their association with mortality

ABSTRACT

To see the demographic characteristics of the admitted patients of measles and find their association with mortality. Retrospective analytic. Children ward-2, Bahawal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur, over a period of one year from May, 2005, to April, 2006. This retrospective analytic hospital based study was carried out on the patients of measles who were admitted with complications in the Pediatric unit 2 of the Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, which is a tertiary care hospital attached to Quaid-e-Azam Medical College Bahawalpur. The complications were recognized clinically and relevant investigations were performed where needed. The data was analyzed for various risk factors which may lead to death. These risk factors were age, sex, nutritional status, vaccination status against measles, history of contact with measles patients and the type of complication. In the 192 patients studied, male to female ratio was 21 and majority was in the age range of 1-5 years. In 87.5% of the patients' history of contact with a case of measles was present. 58.3% of the patients were vaccinated against measles. Pneumonia was the most common complication followed by encephalitis and gastroententeritis. Severe malnutrition was the only risk factor associated with increased mortality. Measles is a common viral infection in children. These patients can develop severe complications which can lead to significant mortality. Vaccination program against measles may be reviewed for its eradication