According to a new study, vaccination for measles comes with a bonus as it may also help the body fight off other diseases for years.
The measles virus, according to researchers, makes kids' immune system "forget" most of what they have learned, thus leaving children exposed to other diseases for as long as three years, NBC News noted.
Published in the journal Science, the findings help explain why deaths and illnesses from a range of diseases drop down in countries as soon as they introduce measles vaccine campaigns.
Michael Mina, a medical student at Emory University, said, "Our findings suggest that measles vaccines have benefits that extend beyond just protecting against measles itself," Mina who worked on the study while doing postdoctoral research at Princeton University added, "It is one of the most cost-effective interventions for global health."
Since the vulnerable period goes up to three years, the benefit of avoiding measles also extends longer than was appreciated, according to Philly.
That re-emphasizes the importance of vaccination, Michael Mina pointed out.
In the United States, measles vaccinations have been in the spotlight as a result of an outbreak linked to Disneyland that infected 147 Americans. It threw light on a smaller but a feverish controversy over vaccinating children.
Several people who refuse measles vaccines dispute that measles is a relatively harmless childhood disease, while some argue that a natural infection in a way strengthens the immune system.
"We already knew that measles attacks immune memory, and that it was immunosuppressive for a short amount of time," said C. Jessica Metcalf, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton who worked on the study. Metcalf further added, "But this paper suggests that immune suppression lasts much longer than previously suspected."
Basically, if someone get measles, three years down the road, the person could die from another disease, which would otherwise have been harmless.
The finding of this study, of course, suggest they are wrong in more ways than one. According to experts, it takes two to three years after getting measles for the immune system to rebuild.
The study by the journal Science was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and federal grants.
