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Adolescents with perinatal HIV at greater risk for low immunity to measles
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Adolescents and young adults with perinatal HIV have significantly low rates of measles immunity, despite prior vaccination, according to study data.
Previous studies have found associations between perinatal HIV and a weak immunity to measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (M-M-R II, Merck). Patients with poor immunologic responses to vaccinations increase risk for the reintroduction of infections into the general population. Low-resource countries, where the prevalence of HIV and measles is high, pose the greatest global risk to the eradication of infections, according to results published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
Lee E. Morris, MD, MSPH, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted measles enzyme immunoassays and plaque reduction neutralization assays to determine antibody levels of 34 patients with perinatal HIV. Study participants, aged 13 to 26 years, were patients of Mount Sinai Hospital.
The antibody screenings revealed significantly low rates of measles immunity; 82% of previously vaccinated study participants were not immune to measles. Researchers found an association between a higher median CD4 cell count at baseline and measles seroprotection. Further, patients who received antiretroviral therapy at the time of their first MMR vaccination were more likely to be immune to measles.
“Studies demonstrate a growing population of children with [perinatally acquired HIV] who are reaching adolescence and adulthood with inadequate seroprotection to measles. … As more low-resource countries have access to [combination antiretroviral therapy] for the management of pediatric HIV, the rising number of perinatally HIV-infected adolescents and young adults worldwide who do not maintain immunity to live virus vaccines could potentially undermine global eradication efforts of measles and other diseases,” Morris and colleagues concluded.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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