Ebola Outbreak Disrupted Routine Medical Care in West Africa (measles)

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health ^ | March 12, 2015 | Robert Preidt

[bgill]

Ebola caused major disruptions to health care systems in West Africa and has put hundreds of thousands of children at risk for measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, new research suggests.... The researchers calculated that for every month of Ebola-related interruption in the health care systems of those West African nations, an additional 20,000 children aged 9 months to 5 years became susceptible to measles.

[bgill]

And we're wondering why we're having cases of measles in the US.

[sparklite2]

I lie awake nights worrying about Africans getting measles.

[bgill]

I’m sure you do. Do you ever worry about them hopping a plane to Disney and spreading it?

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping…

A link to this thread has been posted in the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[sparklite2]

I think you’re more likely to be the victim of American anti-vaxers in Disneyland.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[null and void]

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your......

(Since all records of obama's past were lost in a tragic boating accident and fire, no one can be certain that the guy in the red circle isn't him...)

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Yeah, if I were in some slum watching other people sh*t themselves and vomit blood, the first thing I would be worried about is measles.

“Hey, your girlfriend has been diagnosed with Ebola.”
“Good God, I hope she didn’t give me measles!”

[exDemMom]

The measles outbreak in the US came from the Philippines. And, thanks to stupid anti-vaxxers, we have several pockets of susceptible people right here in the US. It only takes one unvaccinated person traveling to the Philippines (or anywhere else where vaccination rates are low) to cause an outbreak in the US.

The situation in west Africa is pretty dire right now. Over a million children did not receive their measles vaccine because of Ebola. It will only take one recently exposed traveler from the Philippines (or the US) to spark a terrible epidemic that will probably kill more than Ebola ever has. The vaccination programs need to be implemented, now.

[exDemMom]

I lie awake nights worrying about Africans getting measles.

I think you're being sarcastic. However, public health professionals happen to be extremely worried about this. In countries with poor health-care systems, measles can have a 5-10% death rate... and over a million kids in west Africa did not get vaccinated because health care clinics shut their doors during the Ebola outbreak.

[MD Expat in PA]

It is interesting that this is the second recent measles outbreak in the US that I know of traced back to the Philippines. An earlier Measles outbreak in 2014 in Ohio was not coming from some “undocumented”, i.e. illegal alien traveling into the country illegally but from an unvaccinated US citizen, in this case an unvaccinated Amish missionary (and yes some Amish do travel abroad, fly on airplanes, travel on busses and trains) who traveled to the Philippines on a missionary mission and who came back to the US infected with measles and ended up spreading it to nearly 400 people in Ohio before the outbreak finally was contained. And FWIW, the Amish are not, at least not in general anti-vaccination or against modern medicine although this can vary among the various Amish Sects.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/23/health/ohio-measles/

FWIW, France is another country where Measles cases are on the rise due to low vaccination rates and from where unvaccinated US travelers returning home to the US have brought it back with them.

In 2011, more than 30 countries in the WHO European Region reported an increase in measles, and France was experiencing a large outbreak. Most of the cases that were brought to the U.S. in 2011 came from France.

http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html

It goes without saying that we should protect our country and seal our borders from illegals coming into the country. But we can’t and shouldn’t seal our borders against all travel in and out of the country - legal travel - tourists, business travelers, etc.

And while I think getting vaccinated against preventable and sometimes deadly diseases is a very good idea, I am not for government mandated/forced vaccinations. But I also think not getting vaccinated should not be without consequences.

One of those consequences should be that if you come into the US even on a tourist or work VISA and even for unvaccinated US citizens who travel out of the US and travels to a country with a measles or any other communicable and or vaccine preventable disease outbreak, if you have not been, cannot prove your prior vaccination(s), upon return, you should be quarantined and subject to a medical exam until the incubation period has past.

FWIW we still do require medical examinations of legal immigrants coming into the US, including a check on vaccination records, although I question how rigorously it is enforced now days. It is certainly not enforced for the “undocumented”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_exclusion_of_immigrants#Vaccinations

[Morpheus2009]

Well ebola killed quite a number of people in Africa, including people in African hospitals, nurses and doctors included. They kind of have extenuating circumstances, wouldn’t you think?

[Morpheus2009]

Same here. Ebola killed quite a number of people, even the doctors and nurses. Yeah, that sounds about right.

[Morpheus2009]

“One of those consequences should be that if you come into the US even on a tourist or work VISA and even for unvaccinated US citizens who travel out of the US and travels to a country with a measles or any other communicable and or vaccine preventable disease outbreak, if you have not been, cannot prove your prior vaccination(s), upon return, you should be quarantined and subject to a medical exam until the incubation period has past.”

Definitely sounds like a good idea.

[Morpheus2009]

Yep, let’s go to the dying ebola doctors a nurses to get some medicine, I mean people act so arrogantly some times, I understand the situation in Africa, there are good reasons given how bad the ebola was, getting even doctors and nurses killed; that there’s an extenuating circumstance going on in Africa, but the U.S. is the real problem with measles, since they don’t have those same extenuating circumstances.