Measles

[Ada Lovelace]

A not so funny Valentine because it depicts a distressing reality:

 

[DaisyDay]

No More 'Truth Decay'

...In America, for example, measles stands as a stunning example of how the "anti-vaxxers" have united to helped bring back a disease we thought we had consigned to the dustbin of history. Three generations ago, uncontrolled annual epidemics of measles infected three million to four million Americans annually. Victims typically suffered a painful itching, sometimes scarring rash, accompanied by fever and diarrhea. Severe cases led to pneumonia or encephalitis. In bad years, as many as 48,000 American children were hospitalized, 4,000 contracted encephalitis, and 450 died.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, an effective measles vaccination was mandated for American schoolchildren, and the disease was brought to heel. By 2000 the U.S. Public Health Service proudly declared that measles had been eliminated in the United States.

But this year, a scant two decades after we declared final victory, sustained "anti-vax" pressure on young parents has brought measles back with a vengeance, with 372 cases confirmed in 2018. So far through Feb. 10, 2019, already over 250 cases have been reported, almost all in children who have not been vaccinated. The problem is not confined to the U.S., as measles cases have also seen a 30% annual increase globally.

 

[tas8831]

Funny thing us that those who are against vacinees had them as children.

So, that means they are all actually 'vaccine injured'?

Being sarcastic, obviously...

 

[pitabread]

The one silver lining (if it can be called that) of these measles outbreaks is it does appear to reinforce the necessity of vaccines. Vaccination rates are apparently on the rise as a consequence:

As Measles Outbreak Flares, Vaccination Rates Soar and Some Come Off the Fence

As the outbreak has flared, vaccination rates have soared in a state where the percentage of residents who decline vaccines for nonmedical reasons — 7.5 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — is the highest in the country. Parents of unvaccinated or undervaccinated children like Lux have come forward, raising health officials’ hopes that perhaps a corner has been turned. In Oregon and southwest Washington, where measles cases have clustered, about triple the number of children have been vaccinated this year, compared with the same period in 2018.

 

[Steve Petersen]

The one silver lining (if it can be called that) of these measles outbreaks is it does appear to reinforce the necessity of vaccines. Vaccination rates are apparently on the rise as a consequence:

As Measles Outbreak Flares, Vaccination Rates Soar and Some Come Off the Fence

Lacking the courage of their convictions? It is easy to be an Internet Expert, but when the rubber meets the road, they still run to science and doctors.

 

[sfs]

Lacking the courage of their convictions? It is easy to be an Internet Expert, but when the rubber meets the road, they still run to science and doctors.

Not necessarily. If you have only a vague sense of the risks and the benefits are small (since there's no measles around), it's easy to hesitate. When headlines are telling you that there's an outbreak, however, the calculation may change.

 

[JosephZ]

People get sick in vaccinated populations too.

This is true, but at much lower numbers than populations that are vaccinated. When the majority of the population is vaccinated, incidents of measles are rare. I will use a recent article on the current measles outbreak here in the Philippines to show this.

Children continue to contract measles as the Department of Health (DOH) has recorded over 1,400 new cases in only two days nationwide.

Based on a report of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, there were 1,411 new cases recorded from March 1 to 2, bringing the number to 16,349 since Jan. 1. The death toll from measles stands at 261.

The DOH data also showed that 9,975 of those cases are people not vaccinated against measles and at least 495 people who received only one dose of the vaccine.

“After the measles campaign in 2003 and 2004 where more than five million children were vaccinated, the measles cases disappeared and no deaths were reported starting 2005 until 2010,”

It also had a resurgence after Super Typhoon Yolanda hit the country in 2013, especially among unvaccinated children in disaster areas.

Bravo recalled that a “massive measles campaign” was undertaken by the DOH in September 2014 and “by 2015, we had measles under control again with the incidence down to only about a hundred a year.”

“Most of the victims of measles this year were not vaccinated, so we appeal to all, especially to mothers, to let their children avail of the vaccine which has been proven effective and safe,”

Read more at https://www.philstar.com/headlines/...cases-recorded-2-days-doh#L1fyo7iEWxVx1X6s.99

 

[Saricharity]

People get sick in vaccinated populations too.

Yep.

Like here...not measles but yep, vaccinated people get sick too.

Harvard-Westlake students were vaccinated. Dozens caught whooping cough anyway

and this...

US warship quarantined at sea due to virus outbreak - CNNPolitics

 

[Nithavela]

Yep.

Like here...not measles but yep, vaccinated people get sick too.

Harvard-Westlake students were vaccinated. Dozens caught whooping cough anyway

Your point?

 

[Saricharity]

People get sick in vaccinated populations too.

Not sure how else to say it.

 

[Tinker Grey]

Not sure how else to say it.

How about that you'd prefer 0% protection without vaccines if you can't have 100% with vaccines.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Yep.

Like here...not measles but yep, vaccinated people get sick too.

Harvard-Westlake students were vaccinated. Dozens caught whooping cough anyway

and this...

US warship quarantined at sea due to virus outbreak - CNNPolitics

Sure, vaccines are not 100% reliable any more than antibiotics, not only because individuals vary in their responses, but the disease microorganisms are also hugely variable - and they evolve. Nevertheless, vaccines are estimated to have saved more lives than even antibiotics.

 

[sfs]

vaccinated people get sick too.

But at a rate that is so much lower that it would be insane not to get vaccinated, right?

Right?

 

[Steve Petersen]

Yep.

Like here...not measles but yep, vaccinated people get sick too.

Harvard-Westlake students were vaccinated. Dozens caught whooping cough anyway

and this...

US warship quarantined at sea due to virus outbreak - CNNPolitics

But the more people who are vaccinated reduces the number of gateways for the virus into the population.

If you have 100 people who are vaccinated, even with a 5% failure rate you have still reduced the number of people who can contract and spread the virus by 95%,

 

[Shemjaza]

Extinct viruses don't evolve new vaccine resistant strains.

Every tiny reservoir of anti Vax enabled viruses is another potential problem for the next generation.

 

[sesquiterpene]

Extinct viruses don't evolve new vaccine resistant strains.

Every tiny reservoir of anti Vax enabled viruses is another potential problem for the next generation.

IIRC none of the three diseases targeted by the MMR vaccine - measles, mumps, and rubella - have animal hosts, and thus are targets for complete eradication. Measles, in spite of being much more contagious than polio for instance, is no longer endemic in the USA due to the vaccine. All the recent outbreaks have been imported - mostly by unvaccinated Americans returning from abroad. Will the stupidity of the antivaxxers thwart the attempt to eliminate these diseases?