Measles Vaccines May Offer Protection From Other Infectious Diseases: STUDY

A new study suggests the measles shot does not only protect the body from measles, but it may also help your body fight off other illnesses for years.

By preventing a measles infection, the vaccine prevents measles-induced immune system damage that makes children much more vulnerable to numerous other infectious diseases for two to three years, a study published on Thursday found.

"We already knew that measles attacks immune memory, and that it was immunosuppressive for a short amount of time. But this paper suggests that immune suppression lasts much longer than previously suspected," said C. Jessica Metcalf, co-author and assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs at Princeton. "In other words, if you get measles, three years down the road, you could die from something that you would not die from had you not been infected with measles."

"Our findings suggest that measles vaccines have benefits that extend beyond just protecting against measles itself," said lead author Michael Mina, a student at Emory University School of Medicine who worked on the study as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton. "It is one of the most cost-effective interventions for global health."

The researchers looked at deaths among children between the ages of 1 and 9 in Europe, and 1 and 14 in the United States, in both pre- and post-vaccine eras. They ran a basic association test, comparing measles incidence and deaths. The initial analysis came back statistically significant but weaker than expected, not showing a strong connection between the two.

The researchers hope that their work highlights the importance of vaccinations for individual and public health.