Measles could wipe out the immune system's memory, thus opening the door for other disease outbreaks to occur, Michael Mina, PhD, MD, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, told NPR.
Dr. Mina is dedicated to researching the immune system's response to measles and said there is a growing body of evidence that measles erases the immune system's memory of how to fight off other infections. The effect, called "immune-amnesia," could result in measles outbreaks causing outbreaks of other illnesses, like the flu or rubella.
If the body produces antibodies against a previously contracted flu strain, for example, measles could erase this. As children lose immunity to diseases, the illnesses could spread through the wider population. "We could see an increase in the transmission of all these pathogens that shouldn't be spreading past a certain age because normally kids are immune," Dr. Mina told NPR.
Though the "immune-amnesia" is just a hypothesis, Dr. Mina said it is supported by plenty of data. After the measles vaccine was introduced in the 1960s, there was a large drop in childhood deaths from not just measles, but other infections as well. Dr. Mina and his team found that, in the past, measles outbreaks directly predicted spikes in death from other childhood infections.
Dr. Mina said it's only a matter of time before the recent surge in measles infections produces a concurrent surge in other diseases. He urges public health officials to consider readministering childhood vaccines if someone has been infected with measles.
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