Effects of ribavirin on measles

To assess the beneficial effectof ribavirin on measles, a study was conducted among one group (group A) of measles patients who were randomly assigned and treated with ribavirin along with supportive management and anothergroup who were also randomly assigned and treated by supportive therapy only acted as controls (group B) between January 2006 and December 2009 at ID&BG Hospital, Kolkata. Both the groups included 50 patients each and all were confirmed by serum IgM antibody detection. The duration of fever along with constitutional symptoms like malaise, cough, coryza, conjunctivitis, lacrimation, rash, hospital staying and complications of both the groups were compared. The duration and severity of fever and constitutional symptoms like anorexia, malaise, conjunctivitis, cough, etc, and maculopapularrash were much less in group A than those of group B and there were no complications in group A whereas there were many complications in group B cases and the duration of hospital stay of patients in group B were much more than those of group A cases. These results suggest that the beneficial effect of ribavirin on measles is established and each and every measles patient should be treated by ribavirin along with standard symptomatic managemen irrespective of duration regarding illness.