Posted on 12/21/2006 2:12:31 PM PST by Kimmers
Atlanta - The biggest U.S. measles outbreak in a decade - 34 people stricken in Indiana and Illinois last year - was traced back to a 17-year-old Indiana girl who had traveled to Romania without first getting vaccinated, government health officials said Thursday.
The outbreak accounted for more than half of the 66 measles cases in the United States in 2005. Widespread use of the measles vaccine has dramatically reduced the incidence of the disease over the past four decades; in 2004, there were just 37 cases, the smallest number in nearly 90 years of record-keeping.
The Clinton County, Ind., girl unknowingly brought the viral disease back to her home state of Indiana, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Thirty-two other people in Indiana and one from Illinois became infected. Three people were hospitalized, but no one died.
Only two of the 34 people had been vaccinated against measles.
"The outbreak occurred because measles was imported into a population of children whose parents had chosen not to vaccinate their children because of safety concerns, despite evidence that measles-containing vaccine is safe and effective," the CDC said in its weekly journal.
The Indiana girl became infected after visiting a Romanian orphanage while on a church-mission trip, the CDC and state health officials said. The others became infected after they attended a church gathering with her the day after her return.
"Certainly orphanages are known to be higher risk" for measles, said Dr. Philip Gould of the CDC's division of viral diseases. "The main point is to ensure that people do get vaccinated, especially prior to leaving the country, ... going to a place that physicians suspect that measles is a risk."
The federal health agency said the girl should have been given two doses of a measles vaccine before leaving the country. The CDC said the outbreak could have been prevented if everyone involved had been properly vaccinated.
However, the agency noted that a "major epidemic" was averted because the community surrounding the outbreak area had high vaccination rates.
Nearly all of the 32 other U.S. cases in 2005 originated abroad, including 16 cases involving U.S. residents infected while traveling overseas and seven involving foreigners who were infected before visiting the United States.
In the decade before a measles vaccine became available in 1963, about 450,000 measles cases and about 450 measles deaths were recorded in the U.S. each year. The disease - often known by its characteristic rash that begins on the face and spreads - can cause ear infection, diarrhea, or pneumonia. It kills about one in 1,000 patients, according to the CDC.
The U.S. vaccination rate against measles is now more than 90 percent.
CDC measles info
More like let the security hassles for travelers increase.
I'll probably catch it for this, but oh for the days where childhood diseases were caught as children and inparted better immunity.
Exactly who is the 17 year old and why was she allowed to travel w/out the proper innoculations or proof that she had had them?
Maybe some other parents will learn from this.
A scary fact - you can be vaccinated and STILL get the measles...
http://www.brown.edu/Courses/Bio_160/Projects2000/MMR/mmrmeaslesvaccine.htm
EXCERPTED
Dosage and Vaccine Failure
Recent measles outbreaks throughout the world may be due to vaccine failure. Primary vaccine failure (PVF) occurs when the subject does not make detectable antibodies in response to the vaccination. Secondary vaccine failure (SVF) results when the subject initially makes detectable antibodies in response to vaccination but these titers fall with time.(7) For this reason, it is important to establish a strong sense of cell-mediated immunity with vaccination in order to maintain resistance over the long-term.
Protection against measles necessitates vaccine administration at the appropriate age. Vaccine failure can result when passively acquired material antibodies neutralize the vaccine virus before the patient develops an immune response. The vaccine must also be administered at an age old enough when the chances for the material antibody neutralization are low but young enough to avoid the risks of infection. In the United States, most children are vaccinated between 12 to 15 months of age, and are revaccinated again before they begin grade school due to a waning of immunity or vaccine failure with the first dose. A second dose of the measles vaccine has shown to substantially enhance oneís immunity against infection.(14)
I thought most people avoided innoculations for their children out of fear of retardation, add/ adhd/ autism as a result of the serums used. That way their kids don't grow up stupid and hurt other people. not
Unfortunately, millions of the world's population, especially babies and children have had to die, needlessly, because someone pretended to have all of the answers.
Exactly. Things are too sterile nowadays. I had the Big Four: Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Chickenpox.
When I was little there were over 500,000 cases of Measles per year. Now the CDC is in a tizzy over 34?
Thomas Sowell speaks cogently about this in his book "Applied Economics" when he discusses risk management.
He makes that point that every vaccination, medication or even foodstuff can be deadly to some portion of the population. Because one child may get sick and die from a vaccination (and that is tragic) is that any reason to not vaccinate the other 10,000 children who may get polio or some other debilitating sickness?
Doesn't mean she was never vaccinated.
My 20 yo has had full blown chicken pox 4 times despite doctors saying it doesn't happen.
Lawsuits over improper vaccinations as a tourist? Are you serious?
I seriously doubt we have many here in the US getting vaccinated for Hepatitis, TB, etc..., as they jaunt down to Mexico for vacation.
As an aside, heh, I'm going to Romania in about a week. ;) Properly vaccinated, of course.
I'll have to send this to my Romanian friend. ha!
4 times?!
Yikes, I hear even getting it once is bad enough!
they could find her, but not OBL
I'm on your side, MM... Kids nowadays get so many vaccinations for illnesses that were considered normal childhood illnesses. I know two children with autism and have read enough about it to think there may be a correlation between that and the thimerosol preservative in vaccinations.
One would think that the church group or even the travel agency organizing the trip could've sent home a flyer discussing what's required, etc.
And why is that surprising? It's not as if OBL checked himself into General Hospital suffering from terrorism.
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