Date:   1/27/2008 10:02:10 PM ( 16 y ago)
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URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=1096679

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rwardin1: "do you really expect people to be afraid of measles?"

From emedicine.com on measles:

"Measles (rubeola) is a highly contagious and potentially serious viral infection, with a characteristic viral prodrome and rash. It was once one of the most common and important infections worldwide, but it has become very rare in developed countries where vaccine use is prevalent. Unfortunately, it is the leading vaccine-preventable cause of child mortality worldwide...

United States
Since 1994, most cases of measles have been imported or importation associated, suggesting that measles is no longer an indigenous disease. In 2005, 66 cases of measles were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1 Of these, 34 were linked with a single outbreak in Indiana associated with the return of an unvaccinated 17-year-old American traveling in Romania."

Those who are unvaccinated put the rest of us at risk.

"In developing countries, measles affects 30 million children a year and causes 1 million deaths. Measles causes 15,000-60,000 cases of blindness per year."

rwardin1: "do you really expect people to be afraid of measles?"

Mortality/Morbidity...Complications most commonly occur in adults and in children who are undernourished, who have vitamin A deficiency, who have an intense exposure to measles or no previous vaccination, or who are immunocompromised.

Most complications occur because the measles virus suppresses the host's immune responses, resulting in a reactivation of latent infections or superinfection by a bacterial pathogen. Therefore, pneumonia, either due to the measles virus itself, tuberculosis, or another bacterial etiology, is the most frequent complication.

Croup, encephalitis, and pneumonia are the most common causes of death associated with measles."

rwardin1: "do you really expect people to be afraid of measles?"

"...clinically apparent encephalomyelitis occurs in about 1 of every 1000-2000 patients with measles. This condition is fatal in about 10% of patients.
In children with lymphoid malignant diseases, delayed-acute measles encephalitis may develop 1-6 months after the acute infection and is generally fatal. Even rarer is subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a disease with a latent period of several years in children who had measles when they were younger than 2 years.
Other complications are otitis media, thrombocytopenia with purpura and bleeding, myocarditis, hepatitis, pericarditis, and severe keratitis that may progress to blindness."

rwardin1: "do you really expect people to be afraid of measles?"

"Approximately 10 days after the initial exposure to the virus, the classic viral prodrome occurs.

Fever
Nonproductive cough
Coryza
Conjunctivitis
Additional prodromal symptoms may include malaise, myalgias, photophobia, and periorbital edema.
Within 2-3 days, the pathognomonic Koplik spots typically arise on the buccal, gingival, and labial mucosae.
A rash is present...Complications may include pneumonia, pleural effusion, hilar lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, hyperesthesia, or paresthesia...Patients tend to appear moderately ill and uncomfortable because of their viral prodromal symptoms...

Complications of measles:
Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis
Otitis media
Thrombocytopenia with purpura and bleeding
Myocarditis
Pericarditis
Hepatitis
Severe keratitis, which may progress to blindness

Measles encephalitis has a 10% mortality rate."


http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic389.htm


rwardin1: "do you really expect people to be afraid of measles?"

Yes.

Intelligent people should be concerned for their children, for other people's children, and for other susceptible individuals (such as those who are immunosuppressed because of age, other infections, or cancer treatment for example) who could become severely ill or die because they caught measles from an unvaccinated child.

There are still people alive who were parents in the 1940s and 1950s and who anguished during polio epidemics that their child would get sick and become paralyzed or die. The development of the polio vaccine eliminated the disease in this country and meant that parents no longer had to fear for their children.

Today, what we really need to be afraid of is a casual attitude towards preventable infectious diseases by those who are unaware of their effects, forgotten what they used to mean, or simply blinded by prejudice against vaccines. The history of these diseases and what vaccines have done to make them rare or nonexistent is available, to all those who care to learn.

 

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