U.S. measles outbreak hits 'completely avoidable' 25-year-high: officials

By Gabriella Borter

 

People walk past a sign advising about a measles outbreak in the Brooklyn Borough of New York, New York, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of measles cases in the United States has reached a 25-year peak, propelled by the spread of misinformation about the vaccine that can prevent the disease, federal health officials said on Monday.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 704 cases as of April 26, a 1.3 percent increase since the most recent tally of 695 reported on Wednesday. The vast majority of cases have occurred in children who have not received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease, officials said.

 

"The suffering we are seeing today is completely avoidable," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Monday. "We know vaccines are safe because they're among some of the most studied medical products we have."

 

A vocal fringe of U.S. parents refuse to vaccinate their children believing, contrary to scientific evidence, that ingredients in them can cause autism.

 

Some 22 states have recorded cases of the extremely contagious and sometimes deadly disease. None of the victims of the recent outbreak have died, but 3 percent have contracted pneumonia and 9 percent have been hospitalized due to complications from the disease, CDC director Robert Redfield said on Monday.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump urged Americans last week to get vaccinated to prevent the spread of measles, changing course from remarks he made in 2014 when he expressed doubt about giving children government-recommended doses of vaccines.

 

"The vaccinations are so important. This is really going around now," Trump said on Friday.

 

The current outbreak has been concentrated in New York City, where officials said more than 390 cases have been recorded since October, mostly among children in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn. Most of the recently recorded cases have been in New York and Los Angeles, officials said on Monday.

 

The national outbreak has escalated since 82 people in 2018 and more than 40 people in 2019 brought measles to the United States from other countries, most frequently Ukraine, Israel and the Philippines, federal officials said.

 

Up to 10 percent of patients in the current outbreak are adults who had received one or two doses of the vaccine, the CDC said. Some adults may need a new dose depending on whether they received the recommended two doses of the live virus or if they are traveling into and out of outbreak areas.

 

Although the virus was eliminated from the country in 2000, meaning it was no longer continually present year round, outbreaks still happen via travelers coming from countries where measles is still common, the CDC says.

 

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Scott Malone, Tom Brown and Bill Berkrot)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-30

Sooo Donald is changing his tune now is he I do rember when he was flapping his gums about vaccines causing autism better late than never I guess

This is due to nuts like Jenny McCarthy. 

The anti-vaxers need to get a reality check. 

Sue all the people who refused vaccinations, and who are spreading the disease. If these people are of any religious group, sue the whole group, shame on them all. Idiots that they are..

Geezer

Parents who are not vaccinating their children should be charged with endangerment of public health or maybe even bio terrorism as they are putting the population and even the civilization at risk.
The thing is that sometimes the vaccines don't make a child immunized, that's why we relay on the heard vaccination/immunization as that also minimize the risk of the children where the vaccination/immunization didn't take to not be exposed to the virus.

Parents who are not vaccinating their children should be charged with endangerment of public health or maybe even bio terrorism as they are putting the population and even the civilization at risk.
The thing is that sometimes the vaccines don't make a child immunized, that's why we relay on the heard vaccination/immunization as that also minimize the risk of the children where the vaccination/immunization didn't take to not be exposed to the virus.

People getting medical advice from porn stars. Silliness.

Sent from my SM-A730F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Troll posts and a reply have been removed. 

3 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Sue all the people who refused vaccinations, and who are spreading the disease . If these people are of any religious group, sue the whole group, shame on them all. Idiots that they are..

Geezer

They are not 'spreading' the disease

 

This is all being hyped out of proportion.  Its not the number of cases that is important but the number of deaths and serious complications  that need to be considered relative to the death rate and complications from vaccination .

 

Research studies and national tracking of measles have documented that:

• 1 in 10,000 or 0.01% of measles cases are fatal
• Malnutrition, especially vitamin A deficiency, is a primary cause of about 90,000 measles deaths annually in underdeveloped nations.⁶ In the U.S. and other developed countries, 75–92% of hospitalized measles cases are low in vitamin A.^7,8

There was prior to the introduction of the Measles vaccine a significant decline in deaths had already taken place.( see chart)

But  measles vaccinations can also cause death and serious complications

Serious complications reported by Merck in the ProQuad(MMR-V) product insert during vaccine post-marketing surveillance include6:

• measles;
• atypical measles;
• vaccine strain varicella;
• varicella-like rash;
• herpes zoster;
• herpes simplex;
• pneumonia and respiratory infection;
• pneumonitis;
• bronchitis;
• epididymitis;
• cellulitis;
• skin infection;
• subacute sclerosing panencephalitis;
• aseptic meningitis;
• thrombocytopenia;
• aplastic anemia (anemia due to the bone marrow’s inability to produce platelets, red and white blood cells);
• lymphadenitis (inflammation of the lymph nodes);
• anaphylaxis including related symptoms of peripheral, angioneurotic and facial emema;
• agitation;
• ocular palsies;
• necrotizing retinitis (inflammation of the eye);
• nerve deafness;
• optic and retrobulbar neuritis (inflammation of the optic nerve);
• Bell’s palsy (sudden but temporary weakness of one half of the face);
• cerebrovascular accident (stroke);
• acute disseminated encephalomyelitis;
• measles inclusion body encephalitis;
• transverse myelitis;
• encephalopathy;
• Guillain-Barré syndrome;
• syncope (fainting);
• tremor;
• dizziness;
• paraesthesia;
• febrile seizure;
• afebrile seizures or convulsions;
• polyneuropathy (dysfunction of numerous peripheral nerves of the body);
• Stevens-Johnson syndrome;
• Henoch-Schönlein purpura;
• acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy;
• erythema multiforme;
• panniculitis;
• arthritis;
• death

----------------------------------------------------------

Although its hard to get solid data  between vaccinated  death rate relative to the death rate from the infection itself, the difference appears not significant.

So get off your uninformed high horses , and take the time to question the matter and not just be influenced by the mainstream propaganda that get revenue from Big Pharma.

 

 

 

 

The party of anti-science strikes again:

Republicans reject Democratic attempts to tighten vaccine laws

 

Most Republicans are rejecting Democrat-led state bills to tighten childhood immunization laws in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in two decades, alarming public health experts who fear the nation could become as divided over vaccines as it is over global warming.

Democrats in six states — Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Washington, New York and Maine — have authored or co-sponsored bills to make it harder for parents to avoid vaccinating their school-age children, and mostly faced GOP opposition. Meanwhile in West Virginia and Mississippi, states with some of the nation’s strictest vaccination laws, Republican lawmakers have introduced measures to expand vaccine exemptions, although it’s not yet clear how much traction they have.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/16/republican-reject-democrat-vaccines-1361277

Off-topic posts and posts from questionable sources removed.  

 

 

On 4/30/2019 at 2:25 PM, rocketman777 said:

They are not 'spreading' the disease

 

This is all being hyped out of proportion.  Its not the number of cases that is important but the number of deaths and serious complications  that need to be considered relative to the death rate and complications from vaccination .

 

Research studies and national tracking of measles have documented that:

• 1 in 10,000 or 0.01% of measles cases are fatal
• Malnutrition, especially vitamin A deficiency, is a primary cause of about 90,000 measles deaths annually in underdeveloped nations.⁶ In the U.S. and other developed countries, 75–92% of hospitalized measles cases are low in vitamin A.^7,8

There was prior to the introduction of the Measles vaccine a significant decline in deaths had already taken place.( see chart)

But  measles vaccinations can also cause death and serious complications

Serious complications reported by Merck in the ProQuad(MMR-V) product insert during vaccine post-marketing surveillance include6:

• measles;
• atypical measles;
• vaccine strain varicella;
• varicella-like rash;
• herpes zoster;
• herpes simplex;
• pneumonia and respiratory infection;
• pneumonitis;
• bronchitis;
• epididymitis;
• cellulitis;
• skin infection;
• subacute sclerosing panencephalitis;
• aseptic meningitis;
• thrombocytopenia;
• aplastic anemia (anemia due to the bone marrow’s inability to produce platelets, red and white blood cells);
• lymphadenitis (inflammation of the lymph nodes);
• anaphylaxis including related symptoms of peripheral, angioneurotic and facial emema;
• agitation;
• ocular palsies;
• necrotizing retinitis (inflammation of the eye);
• nerve deafness;
• optic and retrobulbar neuritis (inflammation of the optic nerve);
• Bell’s palsy (sudden but temporary weakness of one half of the face);
• cerebrovascular accident (stroke);
• acute disseminated encephalomyelitis;
• measles inclusion body encephalitis;
• transverse myelitis;
• encephalopathy;
• Guillain-Barré syndrome;
• syncope (fainting);
• tremor;
• dizziness;
• paraesthesia;
• febrile seizure;
• afebrile seizures or convulsions;
• polyneuropathy (dysfunction of numerous peripheral nerves of the body);
• Stevens-Johnson syndrome;
• Henoch-Schönlein purpura;
• acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy;
• erythema multiforme;
• panniculitis;
• arthritis;
• death

----------------------------------------------------------

Although its hard to get solid data  between vaccinated  death rate relative to the death rate from the infection itself, the difference appears not significant.

So get off your uninformed high horses , and take the time to question the matter and not just be influenced by the mainstream propaganda that get revenue from Big Pharma.

 

 

 

 

According to your graph, could you tell us what caused measles mortality to drop to zilch three or four years prior to the introduction of the vaccine? Also, would you provide details from then covering the last fifty six years please? Thank you.  

20 minutes ago, teacherofwoe said:

According to your graph, could you tell us what caused measles mortality to drop to zilch three or four years prior to the introduction of the vaccine? Also, would you provide details from then covering the last fifty six years please? Thank you.  

 

The usual answer to this is improved medical attention and understanding of the disease brought the mortality rate down.  While based in truth, this is intellectually dishonest.  To use a bette example, death rates from polio declined before the discovery of a vaccine thanks in part to the iron lung.  Wonderbar!  We don't need a vaccine at all, just stick everyone who gets polio into an iron lung.  Then just get somebody to draw a graph showing death rates approaching zero, and... problem solved!

 

Also the graphic shows mortality, not morbidity, which is a common anti-vax tactic.  Apparently they don't care about the children who have to be hospitalized, get brain damage, go deaf or catch pneumonia, as long as they live.  The graphic comes from a website called Physicians for Informed Consent.  This motley group of assorted "professionals" carries no weight in the medical community and has a board membership consisting of chiropractors, sociologists, plastic surgeons, computer scientists, authors and - prepare to be completely shocked - personal injury lawyers.  Read more about them here: Physicians for Informed Consent – another radical anti-vaccine group.

 

 

On 4/30/2019 at 2:25 PM, rocketman777 said:

There was prior to the introduction of the Measles vaccine a significant decline in deaths had already taken place.( see chart)

But  measles vaccinations can also cause death and serious complications

Deaths from disease from all kinds of causes declined in the period shown on the chart. But  although the death rate from measles had come down since 1900, it had levelled off and remained steady from about 1940 onwards. And it was not zero - it was still killing hundreds of people (mainly children) every year.

 

Immediately after the introduction of the measles vaccine, there was a further and noticeably greater decrease in the number of cases of measles (and therefore, of deaths from measles) outstripping the previous rate of decline. Also, before the vaccine the numbers would fluctuate up and down fairly wildly as outbreaks occurred, whereas after it, the trend was irrevocably downwards, pretty much all the way to zero (see graph below).

 

Yes, there can be complications from vaccines but serious adverse reactions occur only once in every 1 to 2 million cases. And although there is a possibility of death from an adverse reaction to a vaccine, the numbers are so close to zero that it is not even possible to provide a statistical probability.

 

Measles on the other hand, according to the best available statistics and studies, still kills around 1 in every thousand people who get it.  Incidentally, for whatever reason in the last 'major' measles outbreaks in western countries, the rate was even higher. In 1989-92 epidemic in the US the death rate was actually one in 500 and In the 2017 outbreak in Europe, 1 in 400.

 

So it's a question of which is the more acceptable risk to you as a parent - would you rather expose your child to a 1 in a million or 2 million chance of a serious adverse reaction to a vaccine with almost zero risk of death - or if they get measles, a chance of dying that is somewhere between 1 in a thousand and 1 in 400? 

Edited May 1, 20197 yr by GroveHillWanderer

20 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

And although there is a possibility of death from an adverse reaction to a vaccine, the numbers are so close to zero that it is not even possible to provide a statistical probability.

Accurate Statistics on this matter are somewhat difficult to obtain and are often cherrypicked

 

 

However

 

Over a ten year (2004 - 2015) period for deaths reported with measles vaccines, including a few that are no longer in production.

The search result database of  The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) ) contained 108 deaths over this period, associated with four different measles vaccines sold in the United States during the past 10 years.

 

Over the same period there were zero deaths from the disease itself

 

 

If they want someone to go on tv and laud the vaccine, just get someone who's child was harmed from measles. Surely there are a few of those around?

22 hours ago, teacherofwoe said:

According to your graph, could you tell us what caused measles mortality to drop to zilch three or four years prior to the introduction of the vaccine? Also, would you provide details from then covering the last fifty six years please? Thank you.   

You should note that this graph is plotting mortality rate per 100,000 and shows  dropped from 13.3 per 100,000 to 0.2 per 100,000 in the population, due to advancements in living conditions, nutrition, and health care

 

The death rate among reported cases, was  an estimated 400 to 500 people with 3 to 4 million people in the United States were infected each year prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine. Additionally 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 suffered encephalitis (swelling of the brain) from measles. (CDC)

 

 

1 hour ago, rocketman777 said:

The search result database of  The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) ) contained 108 deaths over this period, associated with four different measles vaccines sold in the United States during the past 10 years.

It's all well and good quoting VAERS statistics but there is nothing that shows whether adverse events (including deaths) included in the VAERS database have anything to do with the vaccine itself. They may be from something totally unrelated.

 

As the explanation on the VAERS website puts it:

 

Quote

Adverse events reported to VAERS are not necessarily side effects caused by vaccination. An adverse event is a health problem that happens after vaccination that may or may not be caused by a vaccine. These events 
may require further investigation. By definition, a side effect has been shown to be linked to a vaccine by scientific studies. 
[...]
As part of the United States’ comprehensive vaccine safety monitoring system, VAERS detects rare vaccine adverse events, signaling to scientists that focused studies are needed to determine whether the adverse event is a side effect or if there is no medical link.

So the figure of 108 deaths in 10 years is relatively meaningless, since there is no evidence that any of these deaths are necessarily linked to vaccines at all.

Edited May 2, 20197 yr by GroveHillWanderer

Just found the following in a paper published on the US National Library of Medicine website:

 

Quote

In fact, a review of the VAERS data reveals that many of the death reports for MMR vaccine involved children with serious preexisting medical conditions or were likely unrelated to vaccination (e.g., accidents).

 

These complete VAERS reports and any accompanying medical records, autopsy reports and death certificates have been reviewed in depth by FDA and CDC physicians and no concerning patterns have emerged that would suggest a causal relationship with the MMR vaccine and death.

Deaths following vaccination: What does the evidence show?

Does anyone know if is possible to get a measles booster or vaccination here in Thailand? I found a post from 2009, but it was less than definitive. 

 

In fairly recent local, Thailand, news...

 

MEASLES HAS infected 2,280 people and killed 18 in the mainly Muslim border provinces in the South this year.

 

The largest group affected were young children up to the age of four. 

 

https://news.thaivisa.com/article/28674/measles-kills-18-in-south-as-officials-try-to-fight-vaccine-denial

 

Some offensive posts, conspiracy posts and the replies have been removed. 

 

A post commenting on moderation has been removed.