Tag Archives: measles

Ebola’s Legacy: A Potentially Horrifying Measles Outbreak in West Africa

by GenieBkagzkp Posted on March 12, 2015

Mother Jones

Since the first case was detected last March, Ebola has claimed the lives of over 10,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. The total death toll just surpassed 10,000, as of Thursday. But the deadliest and costliest outbreak since the virus was discovered in 1976 finally abated this month, with Liberia’s final patient leaving treatment last week. The bad news, though, is not over. The epidemic and the destruction it wreaked on West Africa’s fragile healthcare system could result in a new and deadly public health crisis: thousands of additional deaths from measles because of the lack of vaccinations. So says a new study released on Thursday in Science by a team of researchers—experts in epidemiology and public health—from Johns Hopkins, Princeton University, and four other institutions.

“Measles is highly transmissible, so it is one of the first diseases to circulate when vaccination is reduced due to healthcare disruptions,” Justin Lessler, one of the authors and a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins, observes.

If measles strikes Liberia, Guinea, or Sierra Leone in the coming months, the infection rate would be likely almost double than before the Ebola outbreak, these researchers say. That means potentially as many as 16,000 deaths from measles infections and 227,000 total infections. An additional 20,000 young children—from nine months to five year olds—would be infected for every month that West African healthcare systems continue at their current and decreased rate of functioning. If the healthcare systems are not revitalized, almost half of the children in this region would go unvaccinated, compared to only 4 percent who were unvaccinated before the Ebola outbreak. Side effects in nonfatal measles infections include blindness, deafness, and brain damage.

The researchers are urging the World Health Organization, the local ministries of health, and other health organizations that conduct vaccination campaigns to act quickly.

Vaccinations plummeted in West Africa during the Ebola outbreak because health care facilities shut down, and people stayed away from remaining open clinics out of fear of being contaminated. In Monrovia, Liberia, at least half of the health care centers closed. A report from Sierra Leone noted that the admission rate at open clinics dropped 70 percent during the outbreak. Physicians from other countries were viewed with suspicion; some West Africans believed Westerners had brought the disease with them. “The Ebola crises has made an already complex relationship between the public health community and locals only more so,” says Lessler.

The World Health Organization and the Measles and Rubella Initiative is currently advising that vaccination campaigns be postponed in areas affected by Ebola until 42 days following the determination an area is free of Ebola. The new study suggests that a measles epidemic can be prevented now in regions where the Ebola crisis has passed. The WHO is advising a catch-up campaign: a large number of vaccinations will need to be administered to all the infants and children who went unvaccinated during the crisis.

Each vaccine costs only $1 dollar to purchase and deliver. A recent report by Good Governance Africa, a research and advocacy organization based out of Johannesburg, South Africa, noted that 16 African countries have near 100 percent vaccination rates and have decreased the number of measles related deaths by the thousands. More than 90 percent of children in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone had been vaccinated before the Ebola epidemic struck.

“The high mortality rate that has been seen from measles in previous humanitarian crises is particularly concerning,” Lessler says, noting that mass measles outbreaks often follow disasters. He points to measles epidemics in Syria during the civil war in 2013, in Ethiopia following deadly famine in in 2000, in the Democratic Republic of Congo during unrest between 2010 and 2013, and in Nigeria now in areas hit by Boko Haram.

“While the downstream effects of Ebola are many, we can actually do something about measles relatively cheaply and easily, saving many lives by restarting derailed vaccination campaigns,” Lessler says.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Institutes of Health funded the study.

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Ebola’s Legacy: A Potentially Horrifying Measles Outbreak in West Africa

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Goodnight Measles: Bedtime Stories for Your Unvaccinated Child

by Fern6331kdffr Posted on February 13, 2015

Mother Jones

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As of February 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted 121 reported measles cases this year in 17 states and Washington DC. Of those, 103 (85 percent) are linked to the outbreak that began at Disneyland in December. And the cause of this resurgence of a disease that until recently was considered licked in the United States? All evidence points to parents refusing to vaccinate their children.

At least some of those parents, though, are happy to inoculate their children with anti-vaccine sentiment. There’s a whole ouevre of anti-vax fiction for kids, and some of it takes a pretty, well, creative approach—zombies! shape-shifting aliens!—to advancing ideas about the danger of vaccination. Some of the books include claims about links between vaccines and autism that have been repeatedly and conclusively proven false by science.

Here are a handful of examples, rated on a scale of 1 to 5 syringes (5 being the most explicitly anti-science):

Melanie’s Marvelous Measles (2012):

Summary: A little girl named Tina learns that her best friend Melanie is out of school with the measles. Melanie is vaccinated, but Tina’s parents decided not to vaccinate her after her little brother “was very sick” from his shots. Tina’s mother assures her daughter that measles make the body stronger, and they go to Melanie’s house so Tina can get the measles, too. Another (vaccinated) classmate ends up catching measles from Melanie, who eventually recovers, but Tina doesn’t contract the disease, because “she eats lots of fresh, raw food, and also because she plays in the sunshine daily and drinks plenty of water.”

Excerpt: “Tina heard Jared tell Travis, the boy beside him, that he wouldn’t get the measles because he had been vaccinated. Travis said that he wasn’t vaccinated, but didn’t mind, until Jared then told him angrily, ‘Well, you’re going to die if you don’t get vaccinated.’ Travis thought about this for a minute and said to Jared, ‘Well I know that isn’t true because I haven’t had any vaccinations and I am still alive.’ Jared didn’t know what to say to that!”

Rating:

Vaccination: A Zombie Novel (2014):

Summary: The federal government mass-produces a swine flu vaccine that turns recipients into zombies. A 911 dispatcher who has foregone the vaccine must find a way to save himself and his two kids. Escaping to Mexico might be their only chance.

Excerpt: “They’re not dead though. They look it. But they’re not. Their bodies will continue to decay, but they’ll keep going, keep coming after you, keep eating until they just can’t do it anymore. They get all dumb, and forget how to do things, but not how to eat. They remember that. And how to run. My God, they’re fast. So, so fast.”

“Who forgets things?

“Who?” he laughed. “All of them. Everyone who got the vaccination.”

“What vaccination?” I asked.

“For the flu. Aren’t you listening to me?”

Rating:

The Vicious Case of the Viral Vaccine (2013): Mae, the daughter of a research nurse, believes the new Universal Flu Vaccine is safe, but her classmate Clinton isn’t so sure. As protests against the vaccine heat up, Selectra Volt, Dudette from the Future—a time-traveler—sends them on a mission to go back in time and see how vaccines were developed. On their journey, they visit the likes of Louis Pasteur and Jonas Salk, creator of the polio vaccine. They must return to the present in time to uncover a plot against the new flu vaccine.

Excerpt: “That vaccine could make people really sick,” Clinton burst out.

Mae clutched her current events report and looked out at the class. “It won’t. My mother worked on this vaccine. and it’s safe. Only crazy people think it isn’t.”

Rating:

The Vaccine Aliens (2005):

Summary: A son develops autism after getting the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine. The father then discovers that in addition to causing autism, the MMR vaccine is part of a plot by shape-shifting aliens to destroy the human race.

Extra: Author Raymond Gallup is the president of the Autism Autoimmunity Project. In 2002, he wrote a letter on the anti-vax site VaccinationNews responding to a Time magazine story headlined “The Secrets of Autism.” In the letter, he alludes to some of the sinister themes of his book, claiming that “the medical community and government health officials avoid the vaccine/autism link of the MMR vaccine.”

Rating:

No Vaccines for Me! (2010):

Summary: This “interactive family book” is written by Kathleen Dunkelberger, a registered nurse. It’s a collection of illustrated stories that go through the history of vaccines, their ingredients, potential dangers and side effects (including autism), government connections to the pharmaceutical industry, and more.

Excerpt: “Babies and kids don’t always need shots. Many doctors and nurses know this now, but there are still some who will try to give these shots to all people of all ages. They sometimes try to give them to children in school. These shots are called vaccinations (vax-sin-nay-shuns). Vaccinations can be given as a shot, a liquid to take in your mouth, or as a spray mist up your nose.”

Rating:

Continued – 

Goodnight Measles: Bedtime Stories for Your Unvaccinated Child

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Poll: Republicans More Likely Than Dems to Say Vaccinations Should be Parents’ Choice

by OnaCogburn Posted on February 3, 2015

Mother Jones

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According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, vaccine beliefs are divided along party lines. A poll found that 1 out of 3 Republicans and Independents said the decision to vaccinate should be a parent’s choice, compared to 1 out of 5 Democrats.

The poll also found that young adults are more likely than their older counterparts to believe that parents should be able to choose whether to vaccinate a child. An estimated 41 percent of 18-to-29-years olds believed it should be a parent’s decision, compared to just 20 percent of adults 65 years or older.

Some attribute this divide to the fact that Measles have become rare since 1963, when the first Measles vaccine was introduced. In 1958, there were 750,000 cases of the disease. By 1968 this number had fallen to 22,000. By 2000 there were only 86 confirmed Measles cases reported to the CDC. Number stayed low until 2014 when the Center for Disease Control reported an outbreak of more than 600 cases. It was the first spike in a decade and was largely linked to unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio.

This is Pew’s first report on this question since 2009; however, it is interesting to note that the data was amassed in August 2014—months before the current Measles outbreak that has resulted in more than 100 cases across 14 states.

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Poll: Republicans More Likely Than Dems to Say Vaccinations Should be Parents’ Choice

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Even If Your Kid Doesn’t Get Measles, It’s Gonna Cost You

by MadeleiDingle Posted on January 29, 2015

Mother Jones

Measles is not only highly contagious, it’s expensive to contain—especially for cash-strapped local governments. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calculated that outbreaks in 2011—a total of just 107 cases—cost state and local taxpayers up to $5.3 million. That may not seem like a lot, but with more than triple that number of cases last year, and a growing number of unvaccinated children, the costs are really going to add up.

More stories on vaccines and outbreaks:


Vaccines Work. These 8 Charts Prove It.


Map: The High Cost of Vaccine Hysteria


How Many People Arenâ&#128;&#153;t Vaccinating Their Kids in Your State?


Measles Cases in the US are at a 20-Year High. Thanks, Anti-Vaxxers.


This PBS Special Makes The Most Powerful Argument For Vaccines Yet


Mickey Mouse Still Stricken With Measles, Thanks to the Anti-Vaxxers


If You Distrust Vaccines, You’re More Likely to Think NASA Faked the Moon Landings

In 2014, there were 23 outbreaks in the United States and 644 confirmed cases—the most since the disease was declared all but eliminated back in 2000. And at last count, there were 66 cases in six states and Mexico linked to the Disneyland outbreak, which began in December and may be far from over.

Despite whatever nonsense Dr. Bob Sears might spout, measles is no joke. The CDC has released an official health advisory warning public health departments and health care facilities of the need for greater vaccine coverage and the “importance of a prompt and appropriate public health response to measles cases and outbreaks.” State and local health agencies are ramping up efforts to contain it, especially in California, which has the most cases. Some have even begun enforcing quarantines. And all of this, as the CDC notes, costs money:

Due to its high infectiousness and the potential severity of complications, a measles outbreak often constitutes a serious public health event entailing a vigorous response from local public health departments and can involve multiple states and counties…As a result of the amount of effort and resources reallocated to the outbreak response, the economic toll in these public health departments could be significant.

The problem is expected to get worse, and more expensive, thanks to the growing numbers of people who, based on discredited science or religious convictions, refuse to have their children vaccinated.

The CDC’s 2011 report highlighted the opportunity costs associated with outbreaks, which divert resources that could be used to manage other public health problems. What’s more, especially when it involves such a communicable disease, an outbreak can create major headaches for hospitals and clinics. Thirty babies, for instance, were recently placed on home quarantine after a deliberately unvaccinated child with measles was found to have passed through the same department at the Kaiser medical center in Oakland, California.

Sherri Willis, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County Public Health Department (which has jurisdiction over Oakland) says 20 of the babies have since been cleared. But, with six confirmed cases in the county so far, investigations into who measles patients have come into contact with have become the agency’s priority. The department has had to shift its entire focus. “We are now tracking hundreds of people who came in to contact with the six cases,” she says. “It is extremely time consuming.”

Outbreaks can also stretch the resources of police departments, which have to enforce quarantines, not to mention schools and universities, which can serve as incubators. The costs are compounded, the CDC notes, by the duration of the outbreak and the number of potentially susceptible contacts a patient has had—a number that can be very high in communities where a lot of parents fail to vaccinate their children.

The World Health Organization has also stressed the financial burden of measles in comparison with the much lower cost of vaccinating people. “Complacency and unfounded scares about vaccine safety have led to a situation where measles is just waiting to strike in many countries,” Guenael Rodier, director of the Division of Communicable Diseases, Health Security and Environment at WHO/Europe, noted in a 2013 press release. “These countries could find they are hit hard economically. Scrimping on vaccination is a very expensive decision.”

Though its still unclear the extent to which the current outbreak will affect local health agencies in the longer term, Willis emphasizes that vaccine coverage in recent years has been slipping, and that parents need to step up and get real. “Measles is a vaccine-preventable disease,” she says. “The vaccine is safe. The vaccine is effective. The issue here is for people to take this disease seriously.”

Excerpt from:  

Even If Your Kid Doesn’t Get Measles, It’s Gonna Cost You

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