MMR Vaccination: How Many Doses Does This Patient Need?

February 12, 2021

Research suggests that MMR vaccination may be protective against COVID-19. So, test your knowledge of who needs the vaccine with 9 cases you might see in your office.

The ongoing search of the existing pharmacopeia for preventives and therapeutics for COVID-19 has had a number of successes, such as dexamethasone for severe disease.

In late 2020 a paper published in the journal nBio suggested that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine could potentially help protect against or reduce the severity of COVID-19 infection. The study showed that mumps titers related to the MMR II vaccine are significantly and inversely correlated with the severity of COVID-19-related symptoms.

The authors don't recommend that adults line up for a MMR II booster, but the results are provocative and sparked the idea for this Throw-back-Thursday quiz that tests your knowledge of who does and doesn't need MMR vaccination. Dr Terry Brenneman has created 9 theoretical adults for you to assess. No doses needed? One, 2, or even 3 doses? (Link to paper at end of quiz.)

PATIENT #1. Adult born in 1984 whose parents chose not to vaccinate. He is interested in getting vaccinated now. No measles cases have been reported in his state.

The patient needs 1 dose of MMR vaccine.

Patient #2. Physician born in 1956 has never been vaccinated. Several cases of measles have been reported in her small town. She doesn't know if she had measles disease.

This patient does not need a dose of MMR vaccine.

For the full study, see: Gold JE, Baumgartl WH, Okyay RA, et al. Analysis of measles-mumps-rubella titers of recovered COVID-19 patients. nBio. 2020; 11:e02628-20. https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio
.02628-20.