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Measles Kills First U.S. Patient Since 2003

posted by takyon on Saturday July 04 2015, @11:30PM   
from the jenny-mckillthy dept.

An Anonymous Coward wrote in with the news of the first measles death in the U.S. since 2003. Measles kills tens of thousands of people worldwide annually. From the Washington Post:

Health officials on Thursday confirmed the country's first measles death since 2003, and they believe the victim was most likely exposed to the virus in a health facility in Washington state during an outbreak there. The woman died in the spring; a later autopsy confirmed that she had an undetected measles infection, the Washington State Department of Health said in a statement. The official cause of death was announced as "pneumonia due to measles."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 178 people from 24 states and the District were reported to have measles from Jan. 1 through June 26 of this year. Two-thirds of the cases, the CDC noted, were "part of a large multi-state outbreak linked to an amusement park in California."

Measles were effectively eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to the CDC. Health officials have said that the disease made a comeback recently, in part because of a growing number of adults deciding to delay or abstain from vaccinating their children. Last year brought the highest number of recorded measles cases since 2000, according to the CDC. Earlier this year, President Obama acknowledged the concerns some have about effects of vaccines but said: "The science is pretty indisputable." "You should get your kids vaccinated — it's good for them," Obama said. "We should be able to get back to the point where measles effectively is not existing in this country."

takyon: Celebrity critics recently denounced California's new mandatory vaccine law.

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Original Submission

• Re:Call me a "denier". (Score: 3, Informative) by cmn32480 on Sunday July 05 2015, @04:15PM

  by cmn32480 (443) <{cmn32480} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday July 05 2015, @04:15PM (#205306) Journal

  Part of it is that the debilitating side effects of some of these childhood diseases can impair you for life. It isn't about exposing the vaccinated to the unvaccinated, it is about protecting those that CAN'T be vaccinated. Some people have reactions to the vaccines, or are on medication for other medical problems that prevent them from being vaccinated. It isn't so much that anti-vaxers are risking the health and safety of their own children (and they are), but putting at risk those that want to be vaccinated but cannot, and not giving those unable to be vaccinated a choice in the matter.

  From the CDC [cdc.gov]:

  Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and young children. From 2001-2013, 28% of children younger than 5 years old who had measles had to be treated in the hospital.
  For some children, measles can lead to:

  1. Pneumonia (a serious lung infection)
  2. Lifelong brain damage
  3. Deafness
  4. Death

  There is a much higher cost to treating people with any of those side effects than the cost of the vaccine. And quite frankly, I would rather my tax dollars didn't pay to fix your mistakes when there is a preventative available at nearly zero cost.

  I don't like that the government is starting to mandate some things (Healthcare is one of them), but in this instance, this actually IS somebody thinking of the children and trying to do what is best for them and for the rest of us.

  Herd immunity is only a workable plan when most of the herd is immune. Once the herd stops being immune (as can be seen in some of the pockets of anti-vaxers that all live together), it can become a public health problem.

  --
  "It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson

  Parent

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