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MEASLES INFECTION CAUSES ‘IMMUNE AMNESIA,’ LEAVING KIDS VULNERABLE TO OTHER ILLNESSES
When it comes to measles, the opposite is true, according to two studies published Thursday.
BY MELISSA HEALY NOVEMBER 10, 2019 14:00
A vial of the measles, mumps, and rubella virus (MMR) vaccine is pictured at the International Community Health Services clinic in Seattle, Washington, U.S., March 20, 2019. Picture taken March 20, 2019. (photo credit: REUTERS/LINDSEY WASSON)
It’s an article of faith for many who refuse to have their children vaccinated against childhood diseases: when healthy children get and recover from an infection naturally, their immune systems come out stronger.
When it comes to... measles..., the opposite is true, according to two studies published Thursday.
In a group of... 77 Dutch... schoolchildren whose parents declined to vaccinate them on religious grounds, the new research documents several ways in which infection with measles can hobble a child’s immune function fo...r months or even years... after that child has recovered from her bout with the virus.
The effect was mild in some of the children. But in roughly 16% of those who suffered an active measles infection, the result was a severe case of “immune amnesia.” In those children, a... genetic ...census of antibodies – immune proteins that recognize and destroy invading microbes – showed that they had... lost... at least some immunity to more than... 40% of common childhood diseases.... Measles appeared to have stripped away immune protections these children had built over years of exposure to diseases and germs.
Measuring the same children’s immune memory 40 days after measles infection, a second team found significant... shrinkage in their stores of B-cells..., which fight disease by killing infected cells and spawning legions of antibodies to confront viral invaders in the blood. For weeks after the unvaccinated children had recovered from measles, their depleted stocks of B-cells signaled a... loss of memory... for past infections... and of strength to mount a defense against new infections.
For some, the damage appeared to be even more extensive. In two of 19 measles-infected children tested, the machinery that supplies the immune system with new disease-targeting cells was ....profoundly disrupted..., raising questions about whether they would fully recover their previous strength.
“The measles virus is like a car accident for your immune system,” said Harvard University geneticist Stephen Elledge, one of the paper’s co-authors. An unvaccinated child who weathers the measles may emerge only slightly the worse from such a crash. Or he might sustain an injury from which it that takes months or years to recover.