Abstract

An outbreak of measles had occurred in Gurayat, Saudi Arabia, from July 2018 to April 2019, all suspected cases of measles during measles outbreak was 477 confirmed cases by IgM serology for measles was 286 (60%) negative cases  191(40%), confirmed cases in 2018 was 86 (30.1%), 39 patients were males  and 47 patients were females  and 200 patients in 2019 was 116 patients  were males  and 84 patients were females, peak  of measles outbreak was in February 2019 their ages ranged from 1 month to 13 years, children aged  2-5 years accounted for the highest number of cases, most of cases presented with fever, cough and rash, 95.5% of patients non vaccinated.

Among all measles cases 286, only 12 patients (4.2%) were admitted at pediatric intensive care unit were complicated with sever measles related pneumonia and pneumothorax, among those patients six patients treated with pulse therapy of methylprednisolone 30 mg /kg/d for 3 days two of them had Pneumonia with pneumothorax and the others had pneumonia and two of them was connected to mechanical ventilation, after treated with pulse therapy of methylprednisolone their conditions were improved, on the other hand the other six patients didn’t treated with pulse therapy of methylprednisolone only one of them improved and the other five patientswere died. patients were successfully treated with intravenous methyl prednisolone as its administration during early severe ARDS is associated with significant improvement in pulmonary and non-pulmonary organ dysfunction.

Keywords: Measles, Gurayat, methylprednisolone, pneumonia and pneumothorax.