Outgoing coronavirus can replace a number of infections

Professor Nikolai Malyshev warned about this during a press conference at the NSN.

According to Nikolai Malyshev, this may be due to a significant increase in the non-immune stratum of the population during the pandemic.

“We live in a time when the coronavirus is one way or another responsible for everything, to blame for everything … Why is this happening? This is because during a pandemic a large contingent that needed to be vaccinated was not vaccinated. <…> Now the coronavirus is gradually disappearing, but we see that a number of infections are rearing their heads because of it.”

And there are already quite real grounds for such forecasts and fears. So, the measles outbreak recorded in January in the Novosibirsk region became the informational reason for this press conference in the NSN. According to Rospotrebnadzor, the virus was brought by a resident of Central Asia. According to the latest data, the infection has already reached Barnaul and Omsk. Professor Malyshev also commented on the current situation during the press conference.

“Now there are several outbreaks: they are mostly in Siberia. The largest (about 65 people) is in Novosibirsk, of which half are children. The disease was brought from Central Asia. This is not the first time this has happened in our country. In the early 90s, there was an increase in the incidence in Tver, which was again caused by the fact that from Central Asia, from the Caucasus, people who had not been vaccinated came to work in the central regions of Russia. <...> Russia does not have its own internal measles virus (that is, which would spread in our country), but, unfortunately, we are not insured against imports. Before that, European measles was imported to us, and there was also Ukrainian measles. <…> Measles is a highly contagious disease: upon contact with a patient, in 100% of cases, a person also becomes ill. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases in the world. There are effective vaccines against this viral disease that protect the vaccinated person in 95-96% of cases, but they do not give lifelong immunity. Other than that, many people in the world somehow remain unvaccinated at all. Now we have come to the period when a significant non-immune layer has already accumulated, for which a meeting with a patient can be very dangerous, ”explained Nikolai Malyshev.

According to WHO statistics, 140,000 children die from measles every year in the world. During the pandemic, according to Nikolai Malyshev, 40 million children around the world were not vaccinated against measles on time: 25 million of them were not vaccinated for the first time and another 15 million for the second (the first measles vaccine is given to children at 12 months, the second – at 6 years). But, as infectious disease doctors warn, by the age of 28 a person loses immunity, and he needs to be revaccinated.

As the second participant of the press conference, a pediatrician-immunologist, doctor of medical sciences, professor Andrey Prodeus, noted, measles outbreaks are very worrying for immunologists also because, in fact, measles is an infection of the immune system:

“Because the first cells that are affected when the measles virus enters are lymphoid organs and lymphocytes. After a person gets measles, they have bacterial complications due to the fact that the measles virus thus destroys the cells of the immune system. In this regard, measles is a very dangerous disease. In addition, it has no specific treatment.”

Now, according to Andrei Prodeus, the situation may become more complicated due to the peculiar seasonality of this disease:

“Measles is a disease that most often rises in the European part in December-May. That is, he has such a winter-spring period of distribution. It is then that it “likes” to appear, and appears periodically (once every 2-3 years).

Another “catalyst” for the spread of new infections could be, as Nikolai Malyshev recalled, the situation in the annexed territories. For example, only 31% were vaccinated against measles in Ukraine. And our fighters meet with the local population, refugees are dispersing everywhere. This, of course, will also have an impact on the overall situation with the incidence of measles in the country.

Sergei Ishkov.

Photo by V. Novikov / press service of the mayor and government of Moscow