According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) measles cases have reached a 20 year high in the US, despite declaring measles eliminated in the US back in 2000. Our global society with visitors from abroad has brought it back with outbreaks occurring in unvaccinated US residents.
 
Measles is a highly contagious serious respiratory infection. The symptoms are fever with a runny nose, watery reddish eyes, and a rash of small flat red spots. The problem is, that you are the most contagious four days before the rash breaks out and initial symptoms are non-specific so risk of spreading the infection is very high. You also continue to be infectious four days after the rash appears.
 
That is why it is probably one of the most contagious of the childhood diseases. It spreads very easily via a cough or a sneeze. Some reports show it remains aerosolized, hanging in the air for almost two hours. This accounts for why almost 90 percent of those who are susceptible, and come in contact with an infectious person, will come down with the disease.
 
Another serious issue with these recent measles outbreaks is about one third of measles cases report one or more complication. The risk of serious complications and death are seen in children under the age of five, or adults who contract the disease after the age of 20. The respiratory complications such as pneumonia account for about 60 percent of the deaths in young patients, while adults usually get a serious neurological complication called encephalitis, an infection and inflammation of the brain. About one quarter of encephalitis patients are left with permanent brain damage.
 
The most rare, yet devastating complication of measles infection is a type of encephalitis called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) this deadly complication is the result of a measles virus infection while very young, usually prior to two years of age. It leads to a progressive neurological deterioration of brain function and eventual death. There is a long latent period before symptoms appear, meaning that the neurological deterioration occurs about seven years after the infection.  It happens despite the person appearing to have recovered from the initial measles infection.
 
The initial symptoms of SSPE are very subtle and easy to miss. It can start out with just behavioral problems such as irritability, hyperactivity, memory loss and problems concentrating. These symptoms are followed by loss of motor function, problems walking and holding your head and trunk upright, as well as involuntary jerking spasms called myoclonic jerks. Eventually seizure and blindness can develop followed by a late stage coma and a persistent vegetative state. The brain’s control of the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary functions such as heart rate and breathing, also deteriorates eventually leading to death. Sadly there is no real treatment or cure for SSPE. This fatal complication usually kills its victims within 1-3 years after the diagnosis.
 
Back in 2011, the CDC had started to detect a drop in the number of children vaccinated. They now report that 85 percent of unvaccinated US residents who contracted measles recently have cited philosophical or personal reasons for not getting vaccinated. Often mistakenly attributing the rising autism rates to the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine.

However, even the British Medical Journal has retracted and declared the 1998 Lancet study, which linked the MMR vaccine and autism, as “an elaborate fraud.” Therefore be a Savvy Auntie and talk to your siblings about your nieces and nephews, measles is not a childhood illness that is just a right of passage! It’s a serious potentially deadly disease that can be easily prevented.

Photo: maunzy via Flickr cc
Published: June 23, 2014