Central Ohio is experiencing measles outbreak that has since October 22 left at least 82 children … [+]
Remember way back in 2000 when measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. thanks to the measles vaccine? Well, in recent years it’s been more like make America measles again. Declining vaccination rates have allowed the measles virus to spread again in the U.S., resulting in more and more outbreaks. Now, central Ohio is experiencing measles outbreak that has since October 22 left at least 82 children infected and 32 hospitalized, according to the City of Columbus Public Health department. Most of these kids, 74 of them, had never gotten the measles vaccine and four had received only one of the two doses needed to be fully vaccinated. The vacination status for the remaining four is currently unknown. Gee, wonder whether there’s been a connection between not getting fully vaccinated against the measles and getting the measles?
This certainly hasn’t been a male order or a female order thing, as close to equal split of male (42 measles cases) and female (40 cases) children have gotten infected. The vast majority of kids infected were under six years of age with 23 being less than one, 36 being from one to two years of age, and 18 being from three to five. There have been five children between six and 17 years of age.
Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that kids the first dose of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine sometime in the 12- through 15- month age range, those under one year of age were presumably not old enough to get the vaccine yet. Therefore, those young kids ended up getting infected regardless of whether their parents or caregivers were intended to get their kids vaccinated when they were old enough. This showed how deciding whether to get vaccinated is not simply a “personal choice” as some adults insist but instead is a are-you-going-to-put-others-around-you-at-higher-risk choice.
Similarly, since the CDC also recommends that kids get the second dose of the MMR when they are in the four to six year age range, the four children who had only gotten one dose of the vaccine could have been simply too young to get the second dose at the time, although it’s not clear from the City of Columbus data. You can get the second dose earlier that that age range as long as the second dose comes at least 28 days after the first dose. By the way, if you are older than 12 years of age and have never gotten vaccinated, you can catch up by getting both doses 28 days apart. You don’t have to wait like four years between doses.
If you consider the Omicron subvariants of the Covid-19 coronavirus to be very contagious (and they are), the measles virus essentially will say, “Hold my beer.” It’s even more contagious. One infected person can on average spread the virus to 10 to 20 other people who are not vaccinated. Therefore, it doesn’t take much for an outbreak to occur.
Having the measles should not be in your Book of Fun. Symptoms usually emerge about two weeks after initial infection. The you may first start noticing a fever along with a cough, a runny nose, inflammation of your eyes, and a sore throat. Then several days later, you can develop a rash, consisting of small red spots that may be slightly raised and emerge in clusters so that splotches of red appear on your skin. This typically will start on your face and then progress down to your arms, chest and back, eventually making it to your lower extremities. High fevers may accompany this rash, which can last for about a week. All told, the illness can last two to three weeks, if further complications don’t arise.
But this is far from the worst that could happen. There are a host of other possible complications, ranging from diarrhea and vomiting that could leave you dehydrated to inflammation of your airways to a pneumonia. Measles can also pave the way for bacteria infections because your immune system is busy fighting the measles virus sort of like someone taking your stuff while you are too busy watching The Bachelor on TV.
But the biggest concern when it comes to measles is the risk of encephalitis, which can happen to about 1 in 1,000 of those infected with the measles virus. Encephalitis is when your brain gets inflamed and starts to swell, which is not swell. Your brain is not like other parts of your body where getting swollen may be a good thing. Your brain can’t function properly when it is inflamed and swollen. You need your brain to do important things like take selfies and send emojis. Encephalitis is not the type of thing where you can say, “My day’s going well, except for the cancelation of Grace and Frankie on Netflix and, oh, this encephalitis thing that I have to shake.” Rather, encephalitis is a life-threatening medical emergency that can result in seizures, confusion, loss of consciousness, and death. So don’t let anyone tell you that getting the measles is not a big deal.
For years, until the early 2000s, getting the MMR vaccine was no big deal for practically everyone. There were the rare cases where real medical reasons contraindicated getting the vaccine. But before 2000, people tended to view getting the MMR vaccine as a standard safe rite of childhood passage. This made sense as the MMR vaccine is very effective, potentially around 99% effective, at preventing the measles in the first place. This effectiveness does depend on how many people around you are vaccinated as well, though. But prior to the early 2000’s vaccination rates were very high, close to 100% in most parts of the country. Sure, the measles vaccine is not perfect as major adverse events do occur, albeit very rarely. However, through all those years since the measles vaccine first became available in the 1960’s, the measles vaccine has had a very good safety record.
Yet, over the past two decades, the anti-vaccination movement has grown and grown and has aggressively spread disinformation about the measles vaccine. Even though this disinformation has had little grounding in scientific evidence, this movement has managed to convince more and more parents to no longer trust something that has long been trusted. So now a problem that was eliminated back in 2000 after four decades of public health work has crept back as a problem again. Which is great, because there just aren’t enough problem in society, right?
