‘measles’

All Articles tagged ‘measles’

A Voice For Vaccines

Posted on April 10, 2013 in: Guest Posts, Vaccines40 Comments

Karen ErnstThis is a guest blog from Karen Ernst. Karen is the mother of three boys and a military wife.  She sometimes teaches English and enjoys advocating for and working with children. She is the co-leader of Voices for Vaccines and one of the founders of the Minnesota Childhood Immunization Coalition.

The preschool class party was one of the last hurrahs for my then five year old. The entire family attended, including our ten-day old newborn, whose only interest was nursing. His lack of other interests turned out to be good fortune because another mother-son duo at the party were contagious with chicken pox and began showing symptoms the day after the party. Had the mother held my newborn or the child played with him, the results could have been fatal for our son.

Having immunized my older child, who played with his contagious friend, I was relieved that no one in our home contracted chicken pox and no one passed it on to our new baby.

While I was angry when the mother revealed that she’d purposely left her son unvaccinated against chicken pox, I felt proud that I had chosen well, I had protected both my children, and I had understood and agreed with what public health officials had proposed: that children need the varicella vaccine. I had both done what I was supposed to, and nothing bad happened. So that’s the end of the story, right?

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Measles At The Super Bowl

Posted on February 10, 2012 in: Infant, School Age, Teens, Toddler7 Comments

Like the makings of a Hollywood movie, I learned this week that there were an estimated 200,000 people in Super Bowl Village this past weekend in Indiana. Amongst them on February 4th, was one (or maybe two) child with infectious measles. Fortunately, the child didn’t attend the game. Yet, measles is highly contagious. The period of infectivity starts before symptoms in some cases and usually 4-5 days before the typical rash, when many think they have just a bad cold. Measles is spread by the respiratory droplets infected people share when breathing, coughing, or sneezing. And the virus can survive for about 2 hours on surfaces or in the air after a person leaves the room. Measles has a wild history and although most children/adults do well after recovering from the illness, measles can result in severe complications like pneumonia or encephalitis. Fortunately, the majority of those in attendance last weekend who may have walked by or been near the infected person were protected by the measles vaccine.

The incubation period (the time it takes to get sick after being exposed) is about 10 days with measles. So if unprotected people contracted measles last weekend, they may get sick this weekend or early next week. Hopefully, we’ll hear of no one.

Measles spreads easily. There are reports of measles infecting every single unvaccinated person at a picnic. The public health department, even here in Seattle, sent an advisory email last night with instructions for what we doctors should do if we suspect measles in someone who was in Indiana last weekend.

But this is a global thing not just a US national sport thing. Starting in 2009, the number of cases of measles rose sharply in Europe. In 2010 for example, there were over 30,000 cases of confirmed, reported measles and in 2011 (through October), there were over 25,000 cases, with over 14,000 cases in France alone. Fifty percent of those with reported measles were children, less than 14 years of age. Immunization rates for measles have declined in Europe and public health officials point to waning vaccination as one reason for the surge. Read full post »

Changing The World: Gates’s 36 Cents

Posted on January 31, 2011 in: Doctoring & Healthcare3 Comments

Bill Gates recently said, “Not everyone can go into the field or donate. But every one of us can be an advocate for people whose voices are not heard.”

Ditto to what he said.

Watch Gates’s annual letter (below). This modality for telling stories is delicious and the message here is simple yet full of heart. However, like most things in life, it is not without controversy or a difference of opinion. As reported today in The New York Times, some feel Gates is off target.

I got a boost of energy listening to Gates today. It’s good to hear about progress. And even better to feel hope in the war-torn-rioting world in which we live.
Mr Gates describes efforts needed to complete polio eradication around the globe. He also points out the value of 36 (18+18) cents. Most vaccines are cheap. And although you can’t protect a child from measles for 36 cents in the United States (think co-payments and/or administrative fees), you can elsewhere. Particularly when Bill and Melinda Gates are picking up the tab.

I love to witness those with big dreams and lofty goals; it’s how and why our world progresses.

This video is worth the 4 minutes it takes to view. Both for its message and for the enjoyment that comes in watching the pictures unfold.