resurgence of measles cases in children vaccinated too early

Around sixty children infected in one month. Measles is making a comeback in Ardèche. This upsurge is partly explained by the fact that the department had a special vaccination campaign. “The particularity in Ardèche is that the vast majority of affected children were vaccinated before the age of one.“, explains on franceinfo Daniel Floret, pediatrician and professor emeritus at the Claude Bernard University of Lyon. He is also president of the National Commission for Verification of the Elimination of Measles and Rubella.

Children vaccinated too early

“95% of children were vaccinated, this is a very good vaccination rate, but most were vaccinated before the age of one, because at the time, between 2008 and 2011, Ardèche was in the midst of an epidemic outbreak. measles” which explains, according to Daniel Rouget, the current resurgence of the epidemic.

“Since then, new data shows that the risk of vaccination failure is greater when you receive your first dose before the age of one.” In this particular regional context, the president of the National Commission for Verification of the Elimination of Measles and Rubella therefore recommends “that children vaccinated before one year of age receive an additional dose.”

Ardèche, a special case

However, a major national vaccination campaign is not necessarily necessary: “I think that the story of Ardèche is an exception because the number of children vaccinated before one year of age is particularly high in this department because it was very affected by the 2008-2011 epidemic”.

We should therefore not rush to revaccinate a child vaccinated before a year, “unless there is a case of measles nearby”.

This type of epidemic is not exceptional: “France faced major outbreaks of measles between 2008 and 2011. Things had been much better for several years, particularly with the Covid measures, in recent years only around ten cases had been detected,” explains the pediatrician.