The hospital as a vector of measles in the community.

Over a 16-month period 77 consecutive cases of life-threatening measles admitted to the intensive care unit of the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital were surveyed. Twenty-eight children died and 9 were left with chronic respiratory disease. Twenty of these 77 children probably caught the disease in hospital. Of these, 10 (50%) died compared with 18 (32%) of the 57 who acquired measles in the community, confirming that hospital-acquired measles is particularly severe. It is concluded that hospitals contribute substantially to the spread of measles in the community. Optimal strategies for dealing with this problem are urgently needed.