Measles

As of January 2015, it was reported that at least two dozen people were infected with Measles between

Measles was at one time in the not too distant past, a killer of those that became infected. Measles has been around for centuries. The first published, written account of the disease was in the ninth century by a Persian doctor. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on measles, it was not until 1757 that a Scottish physician, named Francis Home, proved that something infectious in the blood was causing the disease. By the early 1900’s, the United States began requiring every healthcare provider and laboratory to report all identified cases, with approximately 6,000 deaths being

Measles was a common virus in the U.S. before 1963, when the first vaccine became available and prior to 1963 there were approximately 549,000 cases of measles and 495 deaths

Recently, there was a nationwide outbreak of the measles in 2014-2015 that originated from a few different places. According to JAMA, a study showed that over half of the outbreak that occurred included individuals that were unvaccinated (Davis). These preventable diseases are happening more often than they used to.

(2012) For this research study the author searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2011, Issue 2), which includes the Cochrane Acute Respiratory Infections Group's Specialized Register, PubMed (July 2004 to May week 2, 2011) and Embase.com (July 2004 to May 2011). Using a comparative prospective or retrospective trials assessing the effects of the MMR vaccine compared to placebo, do nothing or a combination of measles, mumps and rubella antigens on healthy individuals up to 15 years of age. Two review authors independently extracted data and assessed methodological quality of the included studies. One review author arbitrated in case of disagreement. The study included five randomized controlled trials (RCTs), one controlled clinical trial (CCT), 27 cohort studies, 17 case-control studies, five time-series trials, one case cross-over trial, two ecological studies, six self-controlled case series studies involving in all about 14,700,000 children and assessing effectiveness and safety of MMR vaccine. Based on the available evidence, one MMR vaccine dose is at least 95% effective in preventing clinical measles and 92% effective in preventing secondary cases among household contacts.

The advantages of child vaccination have been pertinent to a child’s overall health for numerous years. Over fifty years ago, in 1963, the measles vaccine was created and introduced to the United States. The measles vaccine was important to such a degree that it is referred to as a “life-saving advance.” This vaccine had the power to protect millions of children from the exceptionally contagious disease. Around this time, measles had the power to overcome four million children, create serious enough complications to hospitalize 48,000 children, and progress to bad enough conditions to result in death for more than 400 children on an annual basis (Parker). Childhood fatalities caused by measles has declined by 74% since the creation of the measles

Some patients will develop pneumonia as a sequel to the measles. Other complications include ear infections, bronchitis (either viral bronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis), and encephalitis. Acute measles encephalitis has a mortality rate of 15%. While there is no specific treatment for measles encephalitis, antibiotics are required for bacterial pneumonia, sinusitis, and bronchitis that can follow measles.

The highly infectious disease known as measles is caused by the rubeola virus. The rubeola virus is a single-stranded RNA virus that is spread via contact with aerosolized particles from respiratory secretions. The incubation period for the virus is 10 to 12 days, and starts presenting as fever, cough, runny nose, and conjunctivitis, which last a few days. During this period, spots appear on mucous membranes of cheeks and lips that appear as gray-white lesions on a bright red surface. The rash that begins 14 days post exposure is characterized by an erythrematous, maculopapular eruption starting on the face/head, and spreading across the trunk and extremities, lasting approximately one week. This infection is systemic and can result

With the effective work carried out by all agencies involved in the measles epidemic, the outbreak was declared over on July 2rd 2013 this is thought to have been a short time frame and could of lasted a lot longer if it wasn’t for the commitment and combined efforts provided by all agencies including primary care, local authorities, health boards and public health wales (BBC, 2013).

A measles outbreak occurred in a small Somali community in Minnesota over the past week. Misinformation about the topic of vaccination is a huge reason behind the sudden plague. The somalis’ fear that their children will have autism due to autism cases in the Minneapolis area in 2008. Vaccination rates have decreased in the area from 92 percent to 42 percent. A mother of three, all of whom are unvaccinated, is unable to send her children to daycare in order to insure the other kids do not contract measles “protecting the herd.” The Minnesota Department of Health is now having to consult the families in order to reconfirm their doubts of vaccinating their children. The same case is occurring across our river in Italy, the country just reported an epidemic of measles numbers which have increased since the

It affects 90% of people who are exposed to it. Measles is the leading death of children. In the year of 2015 about 134,200 children died that’s about 367 deaths every day or 15 deaths for every hour. But over the course years of 2000-2015 the MMR vaccination prevented death by an estimated 20.3 million, this was one of the best buys in public health. Scientists still haven’t found any right treatments to kill the virus completely. It is still best to get a Vaccine to prevent getting measles and also practicing good hygiene by washing your hands with soap and water often or using a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, not touching your eyes, mouth, or nose unless your hands are clean, covering your nose and mouth with you sneeze or cough with a tissue, and avoiding contact with people who are

David Ropeik, a consultant in risk perception and risk communication, was a former professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and wrote “How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Match The Facts” (“David”). Ropeik starts and ends his op-ed by criticizing the American public for not seeing what he believes to be the actual problem. He states that we should not be concerned near as much about measles as we should be about

Those who have measles normally obtain a virus that is very contagious, which tends to live in an individuals mucus (Transmission 1). Many people who become infected think that it is simply a cold, and that with time it will go away on its own. Little do they know that the “cold” they are carrying around with them is easily spreading and taking some people’s lives. This virus is highly contagious and can be spread similarly to the common cold, as it is transmitted in the air through coughing and sneezing. If one does happen to go to the doctor when experiencing these symptoms, the doctor should ask them if they have been properly vaccinated for measles and also whether they have recently traveled into a foreign country. They should also ask if there has been a measles outbreak in or near their community (Rubeola 1). These questions are asked in order to rule out certain probabilities when determining what the disease is. This also allows the doctor to report to local public health officials, who can then warn the community and other places where the infected individual may have been, in order to stop the disease from spreading. All of these precautions are taken, as measles leads can lead to morbidity and in extreme cases,

one vaccine when they newborn child, and the other when they between five to nineteen years. As a result, the children have perfect protection from the measles. On the other hand, if anyone does not take vaccines to prevent the disease, and he exposed the virus, no specific medicine is able to kill the virus. However, some precautions are able to relieve the signs and symptoms of the disease, and decrease the serious complications which they lead to death such as Bronchitis, Encephalitis and Pneumonia. For example, the child who non immunized and exposed the virus, should take a vaccine such as MMR and MMRV during 72 hours. Moreover, the child should take fever reducers, antibiotics which reduce the complications and vitamin A. All these precautions can reduce the risk, but they cannot eliminate the

The Latin name for measles is rubeola. The pathogen which causes the disease is a paramyxovirus, which is one of a group of RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses. Measles is a respiratory disease caused by a virus, and also comes out in a rash. The virus enters the body via the respiratory system, and grows in the cells at the back of the throat and in the cells that line the lungs, from there it then enters the blood stream and circulates the body.