Maharashtra: Effective Measles Vaccines Against Covid In Children, Clinical Trial Needed, Study Finds | Bombay News

Measles vaccines (MCV) could offer children some protection against Covid-19 infection, shows early evidence from a study by researchers at BJ Medical College in Pune.
The case-control study analyzed 548 participants (aged 1 to 17) who were divided into two groups – those who tested positive for Covid (via RT-PCR) and those who did not. Researchers found that CVDs had an 87.5% vaccine efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 and that vaccinated participants had less severe Covid symptoms than unvaccinated ones.
Pune’s findings support a hotly debated hypothesis that children are somewhat protected against SARS-CoV-2 due to “non-specific immunity” after inoculation with live attenuated vaccines, including measles (MCV) vaccines. and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). The measles vaccine has been part of India’s universal immunization program for 36 years.
The research from BJ Medical College was published this month in the international peer-reviewed journal Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics.
The researchers said that while their results are encouraging, more extensive testing would be needed before a definitive conclusion can be drawn. “The results of our study indicate that CVD may be effective against SARS-CoV-2 infection in the pediatric population. This finding, however, needs to be further confirmed by prospective randomized clinical trials, ”said pediatrician Nilesh Gujar, principal investigator of the study.
In India, the measles vaccine is given at 9 months and 15 months. In 2018, the Center launched the measles-rubella elimination campaign to cover children under 18 who had not received the vaccine at those ages. Children included in the Pune study had documented evidence of vaccination.
The impact of Covid has been less on the pediatric population than on adults. But experts said children can be important facilitators in the transmission of the virus. Currently, only Pfizer vaccine has been approved for children (12-15 years old). Trials are underway in India to find a vaccine suitable for children.
According to available data, during the period 2019-2020, the national coverage of the first dose of measles vaccine varied between 72.5% and 96.2%. Coverage for the second dose ranged from 11.7% to 44.4%.
The researchers said their study assessed the effectiveness of CVD against Covid, not its effectiveness. “Efficacy is the degree to which a vaccine prevents disease, and possibly transmission, under ideal and controlled circumstances (comparing a vaccinated group to a placebo group). Efficacy refers to its performance in the real world, ”said vaccine researcher Prasad Kulkarni, one of the researchers in the study.
Other team members included Muralidhar Tambe, Malangori Parande, Nandkumar Salunke, Ganesh Jagdale, Sarah Anderson, Abhijeet Dharmadhikari and Anand Lakhkar.
Infectious disease expert Sanjay Pujari, member of the National Covid-19 Working Group, said: “The science is progressive, in the sense that it continues to enrich existing knowledge. Such studies add to and reinforce what we already knew.