Molecular relationship between field and vaccine strain of measles virus and its persistence in Pakistan

BACKGROUND: Countrywide 5.9 million, 0-11 Month old children are immunized annually by EPI (Expended Program on Immunization) against 8 vaccine preventable diseases including measles and so on. Unfortunately the basic immunity centers are not uniform throughout the country. Each center provides services to about 27000 people which is inadequate. The purpose of this study was to explore the development of EPI Pakistan in terms of immunization of measles. METHODS: Nucleotide sequences were analyzed by neighbor joining method (bootstrap test) using Bio- edit and MEGA-5 software to find evolutionary relationship between wild type measles strain and vaccine strain (Edmonston strain) used in Pakistan. For statistical analysis of data SPSS 16 was used. RESULTS: Currently 1.3 vaccinators are working at each U C (union council) which according to national EPI policy should be at least 2. About 56% and 44% children of age 0-11 months did not received second dose of measles in the last two years respectively. Out of these 4231 cases which were reported last year, 1370 have received their first dose of measles vaccine. CONCLUSION: Seroconversion and seroprevalence study of the vaccine and field strain of measles virus is needed to confirm whether its failure is due to service unavailability or vaccine in-affectivity.