CDC recommends two therapeutic doses of Vitamin A given about 24 hours apart in children with measles, with age-specific dosing of 50,000 IU for infants younger than 6 months, 100,000 IU for infants 6–11 months, and 200,000 IU for children 12 months and older. The rationale is not simply correction of pre-existing malnutrition: acute measles itself can depress vitamin A status, including in previously well-nourished children. Supplementation is used to restore vitamin A levels, reduce the risk of ocular injury and blindness, and, particularly in populations where deficiency is common, has been associated with reductions in measles-related mortality and pneumonia mortality.
They also recommend MMR vaccination “after exposure”. “After exposure” is not well-defined. Let’s look at the evidence.
The evidence supports a narrow, carefully qualified conclusion: measles-containing vaccine can provide post-exposure prophylaxis when administered soon after exposure, but the evidence base for its safety in persons who are already infected is much weaker than contemporary public-health wording can imply. There is essentially no controlled safety evidence for administering MMR during established symptomatic measles. Current CDC guidance recommends MMR within 72 hours of initial exposure for susceptible persons without contraindications but states on its public-facing page that “It is not harmful to get MMR vaccine after being exposed to measles.” ACIP’s more technically precise formulation is that “no evidence indicates” increased vaccine-associated adverse-event risk when MMR is given during the presymptomatic or prodromal stage. Those are not equivalent evidentiary statements: the first sounds affirmative; the second describes a failure to observe evidence of harm. [1] The website claim is not based on sufficient evidence. This report will show why.
IPAK-EDU is grateful to Popular Rationalism as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More
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