Q&A 78: ocrelizumab or anti-CD20 therapies and measles

Should I be concerned about living close to the measles outbreak? Are there any precautions I should be taking? If I get measles are there any treatments?

Case study

I am a 44-year-old woman with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. I have been on ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) for four years. I live in the southern United States and have heard that some adults are getting measles. I think I had the measles vaccine as a child, but I can’t be sure. Should I be concerned about living close to the measles outbreak? Are there any precautions I should take? If I get measles, are there any treatments?

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Answers

I propose to deal with this patient's dilemma using the following questions:

• Did this lady have the MMR vaccine?

• Can she be reinfected with the wild-type virus and get measles?

• How significant is the measles risk?

• If this patient gets measles, is there any treatment she can have?

• What about a measles infection on other immunosuppressive MS therapies?

• What about the delayed complications of measles infection?

• Does the measles outbreak have any implications for MS prevention?