Measles: Past and present

Abstract

The year is 1991 and patients from Playón Chico, Guna Yala Region begin to arrive with respiratory symptoms, generalized macular rash, purulent conjunctivitis, fever greater than 39°C, we are facing a measles epidemic, it is my second year of pediatric residency and the images are still in my mind, all the complications such as croup, bronchiolitis,  pneumonia, subcutaneous emphysema, pneumothorax, and deaths. What did they have in common? In addition to most of them coming from the same area, they had not received the measles vaccine.