The Impact of Measles IgG Titer on COVID-19 Symptom Severity

Background: While the global efforts are now targeting the discovery of a new vaccine for the recently emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), investigating already existing vaccines in regard to their effect on the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is also of paramount importance. In this study, we aim to assess the relation between measles immunoglobulin titer in COVID-19 patients and its relation to symptoms and severity of disease. Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted on confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to the Royal Medical Services (RMS) hospitals. All patients confirmed to have COVID-19 via nasal swap for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) at royal medical services were referred to queen Alia military hospital and were included in this study. Data regarding demographic, clinical, and radiological characteristics were reviewed, followed by a laboratory test for measles immunoglobulin G antibodies. Results: Thirty four patients were enrolled in the study with a mean age of 30.55 (±16.31) years. They were 24 (70.6%) men and 10 (29.4%) women. The measles IgG results were significant (p= 0.017), negative predictor of having symptoms related to the presence of COVID19 infection, with an odds ratio of 0.046 (95% confidence interval of 0.004 to 0.581). Measles IgG titer didn't show a statistically significant relation with CT abnormalities (p= 0.536). We conclude that the presence of high measles IgG titer may ameliorate the severity of COVID-19 symptoms.