Conquest of measles – Kommersant

The country’s main university, Lomonosov Moscow State University, announced a partial quarantine after one of the students was diagnosed with measles. The total number of cases since the beginning of the year in Russia is approaching 1 thousand, cases of measles have been identified in 44 regions. Sanitary authorities insist that the outbreaks are local, the situation is under control. At the same time, in most regions, Kommersant was informed that cases of infection were imported from neighbors.

Students of the faculties of computational mathematics and cybernetics, space research and teacher education at Lomonosov Moscow State University have been transferred to distance learning from May 2 to May 17 to prevent the spread of measles. This follows from the order referred to “RIA News”. The press service of the university clarified that in the second building of Moscow State University, a case of measles was detected in a student of the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics. The department of Rospotrebnadzor in Moscow reported that “an epidemiological investigation has been launched, the circle of contact persons has been identified and comprehensive measures have been taken to prevent the spread of the disease.”

This is the second Moscow university where the infection has been detected. In mid-April due to a measles outbreak for unscheduled holidays from 12 to 16 April sent students of the Russian State University of Oil and Gas. I. M. Gubkin. On April 18, the leadership of the Moscow Aviation Institute made the decision to use distance learning to prevent the spread of infection, but canceled it a few hours later, since the suspicion of measles in one of the students was not confirmed.

The Moscow Health Department said that they were recording an increase in sporadic incidence and single foci of measles among the unvaccinated, but in general the situation is not critical and is under control.

“Practically all those who fall ill are citizens who are not vaccinated against measles, which is the cause of the disease,” the Department of Health said. “Kommersant” talked about a study by the Action Medicine service, according to which 58% of doctors regularly face reluctance to take advantage of free vaccination of children in the maternity hospital and clinic, and the measles vaccine is one of the five vaccines that most often refuse parents.

According to the federal Rospotrebnadzor at the end of April, measles was detected in 44 regions of Russia. The head of the service, Anna Popova, clarified that these were “local foci that can be stopped very quickly.” The largest outbreak is in Dagestan. By April 20, there were 188 laboratory-confirmed cases of measles. The epidemiological situation is characterized as tense, but controlled, the local Rospotrebnadzor reported. In particular, as in all regions of the country, a clean-up immunization is carried out for previously unvaccinated citizens, those who have been vaccinated once, who do not have information about vaccinations and who have not had measles before. More than 43.5 thousand people are subject to immunization against measles in Dagestan. As of April 20, 8618 people were vaccinated, including 8121 children.

According to the Deputy Minister of Health of the Novosibirsk Region Tatyana Anokhina, at the beginning of April, Rospotrebnadzor detected 11 foci of measles in the region – a total of 105 cases. However, the chief infectious disease specialist of the region, Larisa Pozdnyakova, assured that the specialists “stabilized the situation.” The Ministry of Health of the Moscow Region reported 88 measles infections since the beginning of the year. In the Samara region from January to March, 118 cases were registered, in Tatarstan – 45, in the Kemerovo region – 35, in the Leningrad region – 75, in St. Petersburg – 31.

The Krasnodar department of Rospotrebnadzor reported that in 2023, 31 cases of measles were detected in the region, while in the whole of 2022, six people were ill with measles in the region. In the Sverdlovsk region, 52 cases of measles have been confirmed, the infected are in hospitals. Also, 12 people were hospitalized with suspected infection. According to the regional Rospotrebnadzor, most of the cases are visitors from neighboring countries who have not been vaccinated against measles.

In the Tomsk region, as in Bashkiria, 25 cases of measles have been registered since the beginning of the year, 32 people have fallen ill in the Altai Territory, almost all of them are already healthy. Seven cases of measles have been registered in the Stavropol Territory. According to the regional Ministry of Health, all of them were imported from other regions. Since the beginning of the year, two cases of measles have been recorded in Kabardino-Balkaria in a child and an adult who had previously visited relatives in Dagestan. This year, 9 cases of measles were registered in the Irkutsk region, 20 in the Saratov region, 6 in the Astrakhan region, and 12 in the Volgograd region. citizens aged 30 to 48 years. In Buryatia, according to Rospotrebnadzor, two cases of measles were registered, imported from the Moscow region. Isolated cases have been identified in a number of regions. In the KCR, Transbaikalia, Perm Territory, Crimea, Belgorod, Lipetsk regions, no cases of infection have yet been detected.

Tatyana Kogut, an infectious disease specialist at the Doctis telemedicine service, says that after the coronavirus pandemic, experts expected an increase in the incidence of infections that are transmitted by airborne droplets.

“Plus, there is always a contingent of the unvaccinated, these are people who refuse to be vaccinated for various reasons. There are also imported cases from regions where immunization was not ideal,” says Ms. Kohut. According to her, the situation with measles differs in that this infection is extremely contagious. The measles contagiousness index in people without antibodies approaches 100%. At the same time, the disease almost never proceeds in a mild form: “As a result, the development of the situation will depend on how quickly anti-epidemic measures are taken in the places of outbreaks. So far, these foci are local and it is possible to cope with them.

The scientific director of the network of clinics for immunorehabilitation and preventive medicine Grand Clinic Olga Shuppo notes that in case of outbreaks, vaccinations are necessary. However, before getting vaccinated, Ms. Schuppo advises to get tested for antibodies to measles: “If the level of antibodies in the blood is sufficient, then you do not need to be vaccinated. Even if many years have passed since the vaccination, sometimes the level of antibodies can remain at a sufficient level for life.”

Natalia Kostarnova; regional corset “Kommersant”