Measles outbreak in Northern Central African Republic 3 years after the last national immunization campaign
BMC Infectious Diseases·
- DOI
- 10.1186/1471-2334-13-103
- PMID
- 23442214
- PMCID
- PMC3599156
- OpenAlex
- W2134152573
- Study type
- Genomic study
- Publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The outbreak occurred three years after the last national immunization campaign, underscoring the need to sustain and broaden immunization activities in pursuit of measles elimination goals in Africa.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The study investigated a 2011 measles outbreak in the Ouham Prefecture of the Central African Republic and described the public health response implemented to contain it.
Study design
A descriptive outbreak investigation combining case-based surveillance data, laboratory confirmation of suspected cases by IgM detection, and phylogenetic analysis of viral RNA from a subset of positive samples.
Population and setting
The study population was individuals with clinical measles infection in the Ouham Prefecture of the Central African Republic, with cases reported between March and September 2011. Most cases were children under five years of age.
Main findings
Between March and September 2011, 723 clinical cases including two deaths were reported from Ouham Prefecture, representing the largest measles epidemic in the country since 2002. Of 59 blood samples tested, 49 were IgM-positive, and phylogenetic analysis identified genotype B3.1. A substantial proportion of cases (31%) were self-declared as having been vaccinated, and two sub-national supplementary immunization activities confined the outbreak largely to two sub-prefectures.
Public-health relevance
The outbreak occurred three years after the last national immunization campaign, underscoring the need to sustain and broaden immunization activities in pursuit of measles elimination goals in Africa.
Important limitations
Limitations are not explicitly described in the supplied abstract. The summary is therefore limited to the supplied single-article abstract and metadata and requires the original paper for decision-grade interpretation.
GIDS interpretation
From a discoverability perspective, the article is indexed under measles, the Central African Republic, outbreak investigation, surveillance, vaccination, and genomic epidemiology, providing context for locating evidence related to regional measles outbreaks and immunization gaps.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 14 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.