RESUMO
Public vaccination policies in Japan for several viruses have achieved favorable results. To accurately evaluate their overall effectiveness, we conducted a 45- year epidemiological survey of measles, varicella and mumps cases at our clinic. The number of patients with measles was found to be significantly decreased with the single-dose vaccination provided at public expense. However, we also witnessed an increasing trend of infection at a later age. The vaccination rates for varicella and mumps were relatively low because of their optional availability in Japan, and thus they cannot be considered to confer public protection. Although localized to a particular region, our results show that it is important to increase the immunization rate of vaccines for large-scale protection against viral infections through public programs.
Assuntos
Vacina contra Varicela/administração & dosagem , Varicela/prevenção & controle , Vacina contra Sarampo/administração & dosagem , Sarampo/prevenção & controle , Vacina contra Caxumba/administração & dosagem , Caxumba/prevenção & controle , Adolescente , Distribuição de Qui-Quadrado , Varicela/epidemiologia , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Exantema Súbito/epidemiologia , Feminino , Herpangina/epidemiologia , Humanos , Incidência , Lactente , Recém-Nascido , Japão/epidemiologia , Estudos Longitudinais , Masculino , Sarampo/epidemiologia , Caxumba/epidemiologiaRESUMO
Some epidemiological studies have implied a pathogenetic association between varicella zoster virus (VZV) and multiple sclerosis (MS); this, however, remains controversial. The present report describes a case involving an immunocompetent 10-year-old girl who developed relapsing-remitting MS following the prolonged reactivation of VZV inside the first branch of the trigeminal nerve, exhibiting herpes zoster ophthalmicus with severe optic neuritis. Symptoms related to herpes zoster ophthalmicus and MS appeared consecutively in the 10-week period after the appearance of vesicles. This suggests that the onset of MS was triggered by some mechanism involving VZV reactivation in the first branch of the trigeminal nerve. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first to describe a relationship between the onset of MS and herpes zoster ophthalmicus. Early diagnosis and aggressive antiviral therapy are important in cases of herpes zoster ophthalmicus to prevent the possible development of MS as well as visual impairment as sequela.