Around 4.700 doses of the MMR vaccine were given since the appearance of smallpox in Montenegro at the end of March this year until last week, but 15.800 children of preschool age are still unvaccinated.
According to data from the Institute of Public Health (IJZ), interest in vaccinating children declined during July, so only 237 children were vaccinated in four weeks, while from August 26 to September 1, the largest number of children were vaccinated in one week since the beginning of this year - 842 doses of MMR vaccine were given.
Just that week, a measles epidemic was reported in Podgorica.
Among preschool children born from 2018 to 2023, 62,9 percent have received the MMR vaccine so far, and another 15.800 children have not been vaccinated.
The IJZ previously announced that it is necessary for coverage to prevent the epidemic to be at least 95 percent...
The highest coverage of vaccinated people in that age group is in Žabljak (85,8 percent), then in Andrijevica (85,6), and in Pljevlja (83,4). The worst coverage is in Budva, where only 47,4 percent of preschool children received the MMR vaccine, and that municipality was also the first to report a smallpox epidemic and so far registers 10 out of a total of 25 infected.
Measles virus symptoms
The first symptoms of measles virus infection usually appear seven to 18 days after contact with an infectious person. The disease initially resembles a common cold with a runny nose and a slightly elevated body temperature. The eyes may become red and sensitive to light.
"As the disease progresses, usually three to seven days after the onset, the body temperature can rise up to 39-40 degrees Celsius. Measles occurs, which usually starts on the face, behind the ears, and then spreads throughout the body. "Measles lasts four to seven days and is most often accompanied by small white dots (Koplik's spots) that appear on the mucous membrane of the oral cavity", they state from the IJZ.
They explain that people with measles are most contagious two to four days before and up to four days after the measles outbreak.
Complications are the greatest danger
In the IJZ, they claim that the real danger of smallpox lies in the fact that, in addition to the usual clinical picture, the virus causes a general weakness of the body, accompanied by a marked decline in immunity in those infected, so that smallpox is often "followed up" by other diseases and infections.
"Exactly what accompanies smallpox represents the greatest danger, namely complications - inflammation of the upper and lower respiratory tract, first of all severe pneumonia, then ear infections, but also the most serious complications that can occur in the form of inflammation of the brain - encephalitis". explain from IJZ.
They say that the complications mean that there is an average of one death per thousand sick children in developed countries, while in less developed countries this rate is many times higher and out of 100 sick children, death will be registered in three to five people.
There is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine
So far, no scientific study has found that the MMR vaccine causes autism. That thesis was put forward by a gastroenterologist in the XNUMXs Andrew Wakefield in the author's article, stating based on a sample of 12 children that the MMR vaccine causes damage and inflammatory processes in the digestive tract, which further causes autism.
The magazine "Lancet" retracted the article, the doctor lost his license to work, and no scientific study proved the link between that developmental disorder and the vaccine...
One of the latest studies in Denmark from three years ago, on a sample of more than 650.000 children born between 1997 and 2010, proved that there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine...
Bonus video:
