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With all the hidden unknowns about infectious diseases – including the Zika virus, which damages the brain, crippling Paralytic Acute Parasitic Myelitis and the deadly Ebola virus – why could a person remain vulnerable to a disease for which there is a vaccine? sure? Why endanger others? These are the urgent issues that need to be addressed as a result of another unnecessary measles outbreak in Clark County, Washington.
The County Public Health Service reported 30 confirmed cases last week – and 20 of them were people who had not been immunized. Twenty-one cases were children under 10 and eight were between 11 and 18 years old.
Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus; it can lead to serious complications, especially in children, including pneumonia, encephalitis and death. It spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes and can stay in the air for two hours. The largest city in Clark County is Vancouver, just north of Portland, Oregon. According to the Department of Public Health, infected people may have been exposed in schools, churches, shops, food outlets, emergency rooms, an airport and a Portland Trail Blazers basketball game. The county warned its residents: "Measles is so contagious that if someone is infected, 90% of their non-immune relatives will also be infected."
In the United States, measles was eliminated in 2000 thanks to intensive use of the vaccine. But in recent years, pockets of vulnerable and vulnerable people have emerged, partly because of mistrust of vaccines. In 2016, 18 states granted non-medical exemptions to vaccination on the basis of religious or philosophical beliefs. The research has refuted fears of a link between vaccination and autism, but ignorance and mistrust are still pushing people to give up vaccination. The anti-vaccination movement is raising these irrational fears and condemning people, mostly children, to unnecessary suffering.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, epidemics have recently broken out in New York and New Jersey, mostly among unvaccinated people in Orthodox Jewish communities. Outbreaks are also caused by travelers who brought back measles from Israel, where a major epidemic is occurring. According to the CDC, 81 people imported measles from other countries to the United States last year, the highest number of cases imported since the declared elimination in 2000. In total, 349 individual cases of measles were confirmed last year in 26 states and in the district. in Colombia, the second highest number of annual cases reported since measles has been eliminated. The year with the highest number of cases in the United States was 2014, with 667.
The World Health Organization is reporting a resurgence of measles in its European region, where data suggests that the total number of infections will be double that of 2017. L & # 39; WHO ranked "vaccine hesitancy" as one of the 10 global health threats for this year.
We can not say loud enough: the vaccine is safe and effective. Measles can be prevented. There is no excuse for this alarm clock.
This appeared in Sunday's Washington Post.
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