There is nothing to reproach Russia with yet – Newspaper Kommersant No. 19 (7464) dated 02/02/2023

In most regions of Russia, the sanitary and medical authorities of which were interviewed by Kommersant, no cases of measles have been detected recently. Experts started talking about the risks of such outbreaks after reports that in the Novosibirsk region since December last year, 65 people have already fallen ill with measles, including 30 children. Epidemiologists note that even a few cases are already an epidemic outbreak, and they see the source of problems in unvaccinated citizens, including those who came to Russia to work from neighboring countries or lead a nomadic lifestyle. The unvaccinated, the World Health Organization warns, will be more and more: due to the coronavirus pandemic, 40 million children in the world missed the measles vaccination.

Since December last year, 65 people have fallen ill with measles in the Novosibirsk Region, 30 of them are children. This was announced at the operational meeting on January 23 by the Minister of Health of the region Konstantin Khalzov. “Infection is 100% controlled by means of vaccination. And such a number of cases is considered an unfavorable situation, ”commented Lada Samoilova, deputy head of the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor. Patient zero, according to Ms. Samoilova, arrived in Novosibirsk in November from Central Asia.

Following the alarm sounded in the Altai Territory. According to the local Rospotrebnadzor, seven cases of measles had already been identified by the end of January. The first cases, said Irina Pereladova, chief freelance epidemiologist of the region, presumably came from a neighboring region. About 900 people are considered contacts in the region – they are under medical supervision.

“Kommersant” found out whether an increase in the incidence of measles is recorded in other regions. The Ministry of Health of the Saratov region reported that they registered a focus of the disease of four people – members of the same family. They recovered and were discharged from the hospital. In the Krasnodar Territory, according to the regional Ministry of Health, no cases were found this year, but last year there were six cases of measles, including four in children. All the sick are visiting unvaccinated citizens. At the same time, there were no cases of measles in the region in 2021.

Since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Health of Dagestan has also not detected a single case of measles, while in 2022 there were five in the republic. The department added that in “previous years” the incidence of this infection did increase, but now “there is no such pronounced increase.”

In Bashkiria in 2022, according to the republican Rospotrebnadzor, two cases of the disease were recorded. Twin children who moved with their families to Russia from another country fell ill. In the new year, there are no cases of measles in the republic. The department of Rospotrebnadzor in the Voronezh region reported that the last cases of measles in the region were registered in 2019: “Anti-epidemic measures in the outbreaks were carried out in a timely manner in full, which helped to prevent the spread of the disease.”

Cases of diseases in Yakutia, the Irkutsk region, Buryatia and Transbaikalia were also not recorded. Nevertheless, the sanitary and medical authorities of the regions are aware of outbreaks in other regions and are ready for “any development of events.”

The Russian Rospotrebnadzor reminds that measles is a highly contagious acute infectious viral disease that is transmitted by airborne droplets. There is no cure for it, only a vaccine. In January, the Supervisory Service announced the start of clean-up immunization: it is planned to vaccinate unvaccinated and previously unvaccinated children and adults, as well as once vaccinated children and adults, before the end of the year. The epidemic situation in Russia, according to Rospotrebnadzor, is controlled, but there are regions where the incidence rate has gone up. Epidemiologists blame this on unvaccinated citizens who came to Russia to work from neighboring countries. “Often, people who are not vaccinated for religious reasons, as well as leading a nomadic lifestyle and not seeking medical help, are often included in the epidemic process,” the agency’s website says.

Rospotrebnadzor refers to WHO data, according to which measles outbreaks have been registered in the Congo, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and some other countries in recent years. The complication of the epidemiological situation is also noted in Ukraine, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Measles vaccination coverage has steadily declined since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the WHO. As a result, in 2021, a record number of almost 40 million children missed their measles vaccination: 25 million missed their first dose and another 14.7 million missed their second dose (children are vaccinated against measles twice a year and six years). This is a notable setback in the global process of maintaining measles elimination, according to the WHO. According to experts, in 2021 there were about 9 million cases of infection in the world and 128 thousand deaths from it.

“Indeed, during the pandemic, the volume of vaccination decreased, including against measles,” says Associate Professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases in Children of the Russian National Research Medical University. NI Pirogova Ivan Konovalov.— Until now, measles is the most contagious disease. Anyone who, for whatever reason, has not been vaccinated is at risk of infection.” According to him, even a few cases is already an epidemic outbreak. How it will develop depends on what percentage of people around are vaccinated and whether specialists have managed to isolate those already infected.

Associate Professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Peoples’ Friendship University Sergey Voznesensky notes that until 2010 in Russia the measles epidemiological situation was “remarkable”: approximately one person per 1 million inhabitants was ill. And then the generation of the 90s entered an active life, whose childhood fell on the first years of the new Russia, when control over vaccination was weakened. Evgeny Timakov, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist, chief physician of the Leader Medicine clinic, adds that those Russians who received the vaccine in childhood, but forgot that it should be repeated after 25, lose protection. Coronavirus, according to him, also contributed in the sense that it changed the immunity of those who had been ill: not only weakened it, but also undermined immune memory cells. Therefore, Mr. Timakov believes, the incidence of measles may indeed increase in subsequent years.

Natalya Kostarnova; regional corset “Kommersant”