Attenuated Measles Vaccine in Children with Cardiac Disease

Naturally acquired measles appears to be especially hazardous to patients with chronic ailments. The increased risk of measles to cardiac patients might be attributable either to a deleterious action of measles virus directly on the myocardium or to an increased demand for work imposed upon a defective cardiovascular system during the acute disease.

Evidence of myocarditis has been well documented in association with some viral diseases ¹, but not frequently with measles. On the other hand, studies of electrocardiographic records of children hospitalized for measles have revealed transitory abnormalities in approximately one-fifth to onefourth of the cases studied, thus suggesting more frequent cardiac involvement than would otherwise be suspected.^2,3 At present, the extent to which measles causes heart failure or influences the rate of survival in cardiac patients is not known precisely. From clinical experience, however, measles can be assumed to impose an additional risk to be avoided if