Measles Is Making A Comeback
I find that in this country in the 21st Century that it is inexcusable for parents, whatever the income because there are ways and means for low income families to obtain vaccines for their kids, to NOT have their children properly immunized against these diseases we have come to rid from our lives.
I understand the question regarding the ‘possibility’ that an element in the compound that makes the vaccines is in question as to its ‘possible’ connection to some autism cases in children. However, that has not been proven. Every parent is apprehensive about this, as was I … especially with a special needs child I was leery about possibly causing even more issues for my already challenged child.
And then there are those people (of a libertarian persuasion) who resist the government’s insistence and mandating that children have these vaccines before attending school. I do not agree with that. This IS one area where I do grant the government some authority over what is best for everyone.
What I want to mention here is when the Soviet Union fell, and the state no longer routinely handed out free vaccines to the Russian children, there was an astounding and dramatic rise in the outbreak in childhood diseases, such as measles.
THIS is something I really don’t want to see our nation take several steps back on …
U.S. Faces Largest Measles Outbreak in Seven Years as Kids Head to Camp
They’re getting ready to pack their bags and head to camp. But as kids prepare to share close quarters, there’s something parents should know: The United States is facing its largest measles outbreak in seven years — and measles spreads fast.
After someone with measles coughs or sneezes, the virus lingers for up to two hours after that person walks away.
“The thing about measles is that it’s extremely contagious,” said Anne Schuchat, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “Somebody could get measles without ever having been in the office at the same time as the first child.”
The CDC Thursday announced a series of measles outbreaks between January and April 25 that resulted in 64 measles cases in the United States — the highest number reported in the same time period since 2001. Officials blame a spike in the number of travelers bringing measles in from Israel and Europe. Once in the United States, measles has been able to take hold because more and more people are choosing not to get vaccinated, Schuchat said.
Eleven of the U.S. residents who contracted measles were between the ages of 5 and 19 years old.
“My suggestion would be that summer camps oblige all foreign students to be immunized,” said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine in Tennessee.
As for American students spending the summer away from home? “Clearly they ought to have their immunization status completely reviewed,” he said.
What to Look For
A rash, high fever, runny nose, cough and red, watery eyes are all symptoms of the measles, according to the CDC.
But for parents and camp counselors, that could look a lot like other problems as well.
Fortunately, Schnaffer said there are other distinguishing symptoms, including a “very, very characteristic” rash that starts on a person’s trunk and spreads to the limbs, face and the neck. Upon closer observation, doctors also see tiny white spots on the inside of the infected person’s mouth.
“It looks as though somebody had just put some salt on the inside of the cheek,” Schaffner said.
Still, most doctors, let alone camp staff, aren’t nearly as familiar with measles as previous generations were.
“You have to go to somebody with some gray hair who’s seen a case of measles,” Schaffner said.
At Camp Lakota in New York’s Catskill Mountains, camp director Carol Hager said all campers and staff are required to have the vaccine for measles. Between 300 and 350 campers, ages 5 to 17, will attend Camp Lakota this summer. Although Hager said they have kept their eyes on the virus for years, this year, “we’re much more aware of it and we’re much more cautious.”
Hager said the camp nurses will likely give a talk to staff at orientation about what to look out for when it comes to measles. New York is one of four states in which the CDC said a measles outbreak is ongoing.
Measles can spread to other people as early as four days before someone gets a rash and as late as four days after it becomes apparent, according to the CDC.
One in 10 kids who get measles then get an ear infection, and severe cases can lead to pneumonia.
How to Prevent Getting Measles
Getting vaccinated is the most surefire way to prevent catching the disease, as the CDC reports that the vaccine is 99 percent effective.
While about 96 percent of U.S. kindergarten-age children are vaccinated, there are, increasingly, pockets of people across the country who opt out of vaccines for personal or religious reasons.
Though state laws impose vaccinations requirements on schools, with some options available to opt out, many summer programs make their own choices about whether to require vaccines.
At the National Outdoor Leadership School, director of risk management Drew Leemon said neither staff nor students are required to be vaccinated. He added that NOLS is watching the measles situation.
Leemon said some students, though very few, are not vaccinated for religious reasons. NOLS operates programs for people 14 years old and older in the U.S. and abroad, and is running a trip in Europe for the first time this summer.
“We give a lot more advice to our students who are going abroad,” Leemon said. “With them, we tell them that they should have their normal vaccinations up-to-date and we refer them to the CDC for any country-specific inoculations that they might need.”
Of those who got measles this year, just one had received the full two doses of vaccine that the CDC recommends getting before age 6. The measles vaccine is administered as MMR, a vaccine that protects people from measles, mumps and rubella.
The CDC also found earlier this week that more than one in four U.S. children are not in compliance with official vaccination recommendations because of missed doses of vaccines or vaccine lapses.
That could be the case for some camp staff as well as campers, as Schaffner said teenagers and young adults may have only received one dose and are therefore not “optimally protected.”
Still, it’s not too late to prepare for summer because the recommended doses can be taken two weeks apart.
“Get ‘em vaccinated,” Vanderbilt’s Schaffner said. “We have two obligations — to ourselves and to everyone else that we live with.”
Camp director Hager said, “You can’t be too careful. We even check everybody that comes to camp before they stay over the first night to make sure they don’t have lice.”
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
Officials blame a spike in the number of travelers bringing measles in from Israel and Europe.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:17 amWhat official All But Crap? A quick goggle search says Israel only reported 9 cases last year. Try again dip sh**s.The main carriers of contagious diseases comes from Muslim countries because of their ideological religion.Also ABC why dont you tell us the reason the rise in Measles in Europe is because of third world immigrants. If they would research I am sure the reason for the rise in measles in this country is largely due to illegal immigrants.
the irony of it is that the only children that will get it are the ones whose parents refused to have them vaccinated. some say vaccines are dangerous, i dont know about that but i do know that measles definitely are.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:42 amThat really IS a very good point I hadn’t thought about …
Thanks.
You couple that with the lax in parents keeping up with the baby/toddler immunizations in this country and I think we have a very nasty fuse lit on outbreaks and epidemics in the not to distant future.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:43 amThe only reason this is a problem is because ignorant schucks found a still unproven link between vaccines and autism and just ran with it-never mind that the preservative has not been used in 10 years, they think it so it must be true
May 4th, 2008 at 10:45 amI meant schmucks
May 4th, 2008 at 10:45 amGod, I hate this anti-vaccination movement!! This autism link has NEVER been proven. Wait till our kids are being ravaged with polio again, morons.
Reason number 1,233,444,555,677 to never let my child set foot in a daycare or public school.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:58 amI agree. It’s barbaric to not vaccinate your kids. The cervical cancer vaccine should be mandatory for girls, too.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:50 am“B. Verner
May 4th, 2008 at 6:36 pmI agree. It’s barbaric to not vaccinate your kids. The cervical cancer vaccine should be mandatory for girls, too.”
No, the cervical cancer vaccine shouldn’t be mandatory for girls.
The potential risk of girls (later young women) contracting cervical cancer vaccine from loose sexual behavior is a whole different ball of wax from that of vaccinating against contagious (and common) diseases.
It’s not worth it to encourage sexual license in young teenage girls which is what that amounts to.
Preaching abstinence is much better, cheaper and more productive.
When my Governor (Perry of Texas), tried to make this vaccine mandatory, I screamed bloody murder as did a lot of other Texans, plus it turned out that Perry was getting a big kickback from the pharma company that made the vaccine, too.
Mis-information is what causes ignorance to run rampant amongst the public. Please take the time to read the facts, as oppose to, more dogma. The cornerstone of Immunization is being met, i.e. “herd immunity” is being achieved in the U.S. More vaccination is not the answer.
NVIC Vaccine E-Newsletter
May 5, 2008
Deja Vu: Spinning Measles
by Barbara Loe Fisher
Last week, CDC officials began spinning the significance of 64 cases of measles reported during the past four months in contrast to the 37 to 508 cases of measles reported annually between 1996 and 2006 in the U.S.. One-quarter (14) of the 64 children and adults who got measles in the past four months were hospitalized but there were no deaths.
A CDC press release and Fact Sheet revealed that nearly half of the 64 measles cases occurred in those too young to be vaccinated or whose vaccination status was not known. Only one fifth (14) of the cases were American children whose parents claimed a religious or personal belief exemption. This fact didn’t stop CDC officials from trying to blame the measles “outbreaks” on the exemption-takers by stating “These cases and outbreaks resulted primarily from failure to vaccinate, many because of religious or personal belief exemption.”
In addition, the CDC made the following undocumented statement: “Before the measles vaccination program, about 3- 4 million persons in the U.S. were infected each year, of whom 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and another 1,000 developed chronic disability from measles encephalitis.” A quick look at the MMWR historical tables shows that the highest number of measles cases reported since 1945 in the U.S. was 763,094 cases reported in 1958.
What is the real story behind the hyping of 64 cases of measles and attempting to demonize parents who have taken religious or personal belief exemptions to vaccination? Are government health officials trying to deflect attention from the reality that even with a 95-100 percent measles vaccine uptake for children entering kindergarten in two- thirds of the states and a 92 to 95 percent vaccine uptake in all but four states, two doses of measles vaccine does not prevent measles from circulating in the population? Are they softening up the public for a future announcement insisting that a third dose of MMR vaccine must be mandated to “eradicate” measles?
After the first measles vaccine was licensed in 1963 and began to be used on a mass basis in the U.S., health officials estimated the herd immunity threshold was as low as 55 percent vaccine coverage in a population receiving one dose of measles vaccine. (free registration to Medscape required, or click here to view the Abstract in Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 25(12):1093- 1101, December 2006) When that belief failed to “eradicate”measles, in 1971 the herd immunity estimate was raised to more than 90 percent coverage and the 1977 Childhood Immunization Initiative was launched with an aggressive enforcement of mandatory vaccination laws. However, by 1989 it was obvious that even with a 95 percent plus vaccination rate for children entering kindergarten in most states, measles was still circulating with about 55,000 cases reported between 1989 and 1991.
Without conducting a thorough investigation to find out why there were measles increases between 1989 and 1991 in a highly vaccinated population or why the measles being seen was unusually virulent, CDC officials announced that all children must get a second dose of measles vaccine. But measles infections persisted and, in 1995, the National Vaccine Information Center reported on informed consent violations and child deaths in a large worldwide high titer measles vaccine experiment in which a very potent experimental measles vaccine was given to children under six months old to try to over- ride maternal antibodies. By 1998, eight distinct genetic groups of wild type measles were identified worldwide in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.
By 2006, vaccine developers had raised the estimated herd immunity coverage rate for measles eradication to between 93 to 95 percent but obviously even that extremely high coverage rate in most states is not enough to do the job. So what comes next? Will the CDC call for the National Guard to go door-to-door armed with syringes containing measles vaccine to make sure there is not one unvaccinated person in the country?
Measles vaccine, which is part of the combination live virus MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine can cause brain inflammation and permanent brain damage. There have been nearly 45,000 reports of health problems associated with MMR vaccination made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) . However, there is gross underreporting to VAERS and it is estimated that, for example, fewer than 4 percent of all cases of thrombocytopenia (potentially fatal blood disorder) following MMR vaccination are ever reported to VAERS.
In 1997, Andrew Wakefield, M.D. and his colleagues published findings indicating that the MMR vaccine may contribute to the development of inflammatory bowel disease and autism in a subset of children, a scientific debate that continues today.
Parents contact the National Vaccine Information Center every week to file MMR vaccine reaction reports in the NVIC Vaccine Reaction Registry and describe how their children are suffering high fevers, seizures, brain inflammation and regression into autism after MMR vaccination. To view some of these reaction reports, go to the International Memorial for Vaccine Victims .
The CDC’s one-size-fits-all, no-exceptions MMR vaccine policies allow almost no contraindications to MMR vaccine use. According to the CDC, a child can be sick at the time of vaccination or recovering from an illness; have a fever; be taking antibiotics; have a history of allergies; or have experienced a seizure or regression after a previous MMR shot and still be eligible for more MMR vaccine.
With oppressive “no missed opportunities” vaccination policies in place, it is no wonder more parents are filing religious and personal belief exemptions to vaccination. Some have no other choice, especially if their children have experienced previous serious health problems following vaccination and they cannot find a doctor to write a medical exemption. Others want to choose less toxic alternatives to vaccination to maintain health and wellness.
Non-medical vaccine exemptions for religious and personal beliefs are all that stand between the people and tyranny when doctors inside and outside of government take an extreme, utilitarian approach to infectious disease control and write off vaccine casualties as acceptable losses. Today, 1 in every 6 highly vaccinated American child is learning disabled, 1 in 9 is asthmatic and 1 in 100 to 150 develops autism while measles and other childhood diseases persist no matter how many doses are given or how high the vaccine coverage rate.
It is time for parents and legislators to take a hard look at whether trying to eradicate many diseases with forced use of multiple vaccines is a fundamentally flawed policy that has failed to achieve better individual or public health. It is time for vaccines, which are pharmaceutical products made and sold by corporations for profit, to be subject to the law of supply and demand rather than be financially subsidized and forced by government on the people.
No forced vaccination. Not in America.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:33 pm