Anti-vaccine nonsense spurred NY’s largest outbreak in decades

[Bouncer]

Health officials in New York are cautiously optimistic that they have a large measles outbreak under control after tackling the noxious anti-vaccine myths and unfounded fears that fueled the disease’s spread.

Since last fall, New York has tallied 177 confirmed cases of measles, the largest outbreak the state has seen in decades. It began with infected travelers, arriving from parts of Israel and Europe where the highly contagious disease was spreading. In New York, that spread has largely been confined to ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.
As measles rippled through those insular religious communities, health officials ran into members who were wary of outsiders as well as those who harbor harmful myths and fears about vaccines. This included the completely false-yet-pernicious belief that the measles vaccine causes autism.

To quash the outbreak, health officials met with rabbis and pediatricians in the community, who in turned urged community members to be vigilant and, above all, get vaccinated, according to The New York Times.

“Good people, great parents were terrified,” Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, founder of Darchei Noam yeshiva in Monsey in Rockland County, told the Times. Despite the fears, he insisted parents vaccinate their children. “They felt that I was asking to give their children something that would harm them.”

Rabbi David Niederman, a community leader and executive director of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, explained how he persuaded members of his congregation. “We are telling people the health department is looking out for your health… They are the experts and you should take the vaccinations.”

Health officials also reported confronting “a small pocket of people who are anti-vaccine who have been peddling this information, fostering confusion and fear.”

With a lull in new cases, health officials are optimistic that the tactics worked. “I’m sort of holding my breath,” Dr. Jane Zucker, head of New York City’s health department’s Bureau of Immunization. “I think we have promising news, but I don’t want to be optimistic too soon.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019...ak-in-decades/

[Scrumhalf]

Fucking idiots. Getting vaccinated has to be part of the contract of living in society. Don't want to get vaccinated, go live on a deserted island away from other people. You are not allowed to participate in society.

[Bouncer]

1/24/19 - WSJ

The U.S. is experiencing outbreaks of measles, a disease it had declared eliminated years ago, largely due to a drop in vaccination rates in some areas.

An outbreak in Washington state has sickened 23 people this month, mostly children under 10. Local health officials in Clark County, near Portland, Ore., declared a public-health emergency on Friday and are urging residents to track potential symptoms and call ahead before heading to medical centers.

The outbreak is among other ongoing measles outbreaks across the country, including one in Brooklyn, N.Y., that began last year and has so far sickened 62, according to New York City health officials.

These outbreaks are largely caused by a drop in vaccination rates in some communities, and the World Health Organization recently declared the antivaccination movement as one of the top 10 global health threats in 2019.

Federal officials declared measles eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, thanks to a widespread vaccination program. But cases entering the country with travelers, as well as dropping vaccination rates in some states in recent years, have led to a rise in infection, with 349 measles cases across 26 states and the District of Columbia in 2018. Last year, there were a total of 17 outbreaks (defined as three or more cases linked together), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York and New Jersey accounted for roughly half of the 2018 cases, primarily among unvaccinated Orthodox Jewish communities.

The Clark County outbreak began early last week with three confirmed cases and has since grown to 23 confirmed and two more suspected. Of those cases, 20 were unvaccinated and the others are unconfirmed. Clark County has a vaccination rate of 77.6% for all students from kindergarten through 12th grade, according to the Washington State Department of Health. The state’s overall vaccination rate is 88.6%. Both rates are below the minimum 90% vaccination rate recommended by the CDC. Washington allows both religious and personal exemptions for school-mandated vaccinations, including for the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.

Measles is highly contagious; the virus spreads through the air via coughing or sneezing and can linger for up to two hours, the CDC says. Early symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes, followed by tiny, white spots (Koplik spots) on the inside of the mouth and the red, bumpy rash that people most commonly associate with the infection.

Children younger than 5 or adults older than 20 are more likely to suffer from complications that include ear infections and diarrhea, according to the CDC. One in 20 children will contract pneumonia, and one in 1,000 children could develop encephalitis, or swelling in the brain. Measles may also cause pregnant women to give birth prematurely.

In order to prevent the further spread of the outbreak, local health officials are posting times and places where residents may have been exposed to the outbreak, including schools, medical centers, churches, a few local Dollar Trees, the nearby airport, a Portland Trail Blazers’ basketball game and even an IKEA store. They are urging residents who haven’t been vaccinated to determine whether they have been exposed and to take appropriate action.

“If you’ve been exposed and you start to have symptoms, please stay home. Call your medical provider,” said Marissa Armstrong, a public-health official in Clark County.

Public-health officials recommend that people call their health-care provider before visiting the office or center, so that medical professionals can make plans to see cases without infecting others in a medical center.

Unimmunized children and staff at the exposed schools are required to stay home. It takes one to three weeks for measles to develop after someone has been exposed, Ms. Armstrong said, so those exposed in school may develop symptoms later.

The MMR vaccine doesn’t require a booster shot, so those who have been previously vaccinated don’t need to take any further steps during the outbreak.

Officials are encouraging people born after 1957 who haven’t received their vaccination to get one. “We’re really urging people to do that,” said Ms. Armstrong. One dose of the MMR vaccine is 93% effective, and two doses are roughly 97% effective at preventing the disease, says the CDC. Residents can get the vaccination from their local medical provider.

Local health officials are updating the website daily around 2 p.m. Pacific Time to include new cases or locations that may have been exposed.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/washing...=hp_listc_pos1

[Bouncer]

Boy spent 47 agonizing days in ICU with tetanus. Parents still refuse vaccines

The young son of anti-vaccine parents endured excruciating pain and spent 47 days in pediatric intensive care after contracting tetanus, a devastating bacterial infection easily prevented by vaccines.

Despite the nightmarish ordeal, his parents still refused to have him vaccinated, according to health officials in Oregon who helped treat the boy. They reported the boy’s harrowing case Friday, March 8, in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, an online publication from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The six-year-old Oregon boy contracted tetanus—also called lockjaw—innocently enough. He got a cut on his forehead while playing on his family’s farm in 2017. The boy’s wound was treated and sutured at home. Six days later, he showed signs of tetanus.

Tetanus is caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani, which is found in soil and produces a toxin that causes painful muscle contractions. The boy’s symptoms started as crying fits, jaw clenching, muscle spasms, and neck and back arching. The same day, he started having trouble breathing, at which point his parents contacted emergency medical services, who quickly air-lifted him to a pediatric medical center.

When he arrived at the hospital he was suffering jaw muscle spasms. He indicated he wanted some water but couldn’t open his mouth enough to drink it. Some of his muscles necessary for breathing also started spasming, throwing the boy into respiratory distress. He had to be sedated, intubated, and placed on mechanical ventilation.

At this point, doctors admitted him to the intensive care unit, where they kept him in a dark room with ear plugs to avoid stimulating him, which can exacerbate the muscle spasms. They treated him with antibiotics and gave him a shot of a tetanus vaccine (DTaP). Still, his condition worsened. His heart raced, his blood pressure went up, and his body temperature spiked to nearly 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Doctors gave him multiple intravenous drugs to control his blood pressure, pain, and muscle spasms. They also performed a tracheostomy, cutting a hole in his neck for prolonged ventilator support.

The boy stayed like this for 35 days.

At that point, the doctors were able to wean him off the drugs for muscle spasms over five days. On day 44 of his hospital stay, he came off the ventilator and tolerated drinking clear liquids. On day 47, he was moved out of the ICU and into an intermediate care unit at the hospital. Three days later he was able to walk 20 feet—but he needed assistance.

On day 57, he was released from the hospital and transferred to a rehabilitation center. He spent another 17 days there. And it took another month after his rehab before he was back to his old activities, including running and riding a bike.

Despite the heart-wrenching saga and “extensive review of the risks and benefits of tetanus vaccination by physicians,” his parents refused another DTaP vaccination—and all other recommended vaccines. That means he’s still vulnerable to a whole slew of vaccine-preventable illnesses and could one day get tetanus again.

The doctors noted that his hospital bill totaled $811,929, which is about 72 times the average hospital bill for children. And that bill does not include air-transport and rehab costs.

They also noted that the boy was the first case of tetanus in Oregon in more than 30 years. This lack of tetanus cases is attributed to widespread tetanus vaccination. Nationwide, between 2009 and 2015, there were only 197 cases of tetanus, which resulted in 16 deaths.

The recommended schedule for tetanus vaccines for children is a five-dose course at 2, 4, and 6 months, then 15-18 months, and 4-6 years. Health experts recommend a booster shot every 10 years.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019...fuse-vaccines/

[johnson_martin]

I like your discussion..it's nice

[Bouncer]

I like your discussion..it's nice

fuck yourself