Two cases of measles in pregnant women immediately preceding delivery (case reports).

Measles is an acute exanthema spread by airborne infection and still occurs sporadically in Japan. Its mortality rate is estimated to be 0.1% and it has no specific therapy. Here, we present two cases of measles in pregnant women immediately preceding delivery. It is required to prevent the perinatal spread of measles when pregnant women are infected immediately preceding delivery. We measured the measles antibody titer of 1,393 pregnant women by enzyme immunoassay between 2004 and 2008. The antibody-positive rate was 87.7%, but the antibody titer tended to be low in childbearing age. Preventive treatment with measles vaccination is extremely important before pregnancy in order to prevent perinatal measles.