After so many decades under control and practically forgotten as a result of strict vaccination policies, measles has re-emerged and have already resulted in casualties. This is also the case of Portugal, where several cases of measles have been recorded. It should be highlighted that measles is one of the most infectious known viruses. The reason behind its resurgence lies with anti-vaccination ideologies, which have led to the resurgence of the virus among non-vaccinated populations that the virus can infect and from whom it can spread to other people. Babies under vaccination age are particularly at risk of exposure to viruses. The anti-immunisation streams have raised significant controversy, with remarkable repercussions in public health. The practical result is that, nowadays, there is an unprecedented need to have medicine to treat measles and do prophylaxis against the virus.

A study that has now been released analyses the molecules that can achieve these two goals and have been tested in animal models of the disease. The IMM/FMUL team led by researcher and professor Miguel Castanho has discovered that a set of molecules that have a mixed nature of protein and lipid has the ability to organise itself forming “smart” structures that connect and disconnect among themselves according to recorded presence or absence of the virus. The final outcome is the inability of measles to affect cells. This direct correlation between microscopic events to a molecular level and the pharmacological effect has been, in Miguel Castanho’s own words, “very hard to achieve and has called for the use of sophisticated techniques and turning to specialised knowledge.”

The study was developed at IMM/FMUL and benefited from the collaboration of the Columbia University Medical Centre, in New York. A team of Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB-UNL) also conducted computer simulations of the molecule. The article resulting from this research has been published in ACS Nano, a magazine that is published by the American Chemical Society, the largest scientific society of chemistry in the world.

Transmitted through direct contact with infected droplets, or by air propagation when the infected individual coughs or sneezes, the measles virus is highly contagious and is once more a reason for alarm just as Portugal had been labelled free from this epidemic since 2016, according to data by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Directorate-General for Health (DGS) has recently issued several alerts on measles, recommending that citizens living on Portuguese soil to check their vaccination bulletin and that, if necessary, to get vaccinated against this virus.

Measles’ symptoms normally appear around 10 to 12 days after being infected and normally start off as a fever, skin rash, cough, conjunctivitis and nasal discharge. Patients are deemed contagious from four days prior to five days after showcasing the skin rash that characterises this infection.

With two simultaneous outbreaks in 2017, measles has come back strong in Portugal and has infected almost 30 people, causing the death of a young girl.

According to DGS figures concerning 2017, more than 87% of the people that have contracted measles were not vaccinated.

Portugal is not alone in these statistics: according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and to a report released on the European region, in the first semester of 2018 alone a record number of measles cases have been recorded in Europe. The annual record had been achieved last year when 23,000 cases were recorded in a single full year.

Both WHO and DGS are in agreement, in view of this “highly contagious” virus, and have stated that the only effective solution is vaccination. Vaccination against measles is part of the National Vaccination Programme and should be administered at 12 months of age and at age five.