Measles outbreak 2019 worldwide

[KambingSociety]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ngering-blamed

The Philippines is in the midst of a growing measles crisis, with at least 70 deaths, mainly of children, in the past month.

In January, there were 4,302 reported cases of measles in the country, an increase of 122% on the same period last year. The outbreak has been blamed on a backlash against vaccinations.

The outbreak has continued into February. Last week, a measles outbreak was declared in Metro Manila ? populated by 12 million people with many living in poverty-stricken slums. This follows 196 reported cases in January, compared to just 20 recorded in the same period last year. In Manila, 55 children under the age of four have died of measles since the beginning of the year.


Measles cases at highest for 20 years in Europe, as anti-vaccine movement grows
Read more
The department of health has subsequently also declared a ?red alert? outbreak in the regions of Luzon and parts of the Visayas

?We are declaring an outbreak as cases have increased in the past weeks and to strengthen surveillance of new cases and alert mothers and caregivers to be more vigilant,? said Francisco Duque, the health secretary, in a statement.

It follows on from reports from the department of health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) which showed that, as of December 2018, there were more than 20,000 reported measles cases in the Philippines, a 500% increase on the year before.

Measles is a highly contagious disease, but population immunity can be achieved if more than 95% of the population is vaccinated. However, in the Philippines, vaccinations are currently only at 55% according to UNICEF, down 15% on last year. This has been blamed mainly on fear-mongering over inoculations.

Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF Representative in the Philippines, said UNICEF was ?deeply concerned? about the outbreak.

?Immunisation in the Philippines has declined sharply from 88% in 2014 to 73% in 2017, leaving 2.5 million children under five who are not vaccinated for measles,? said Sylwander. ?There has been a notable unwillingness on the part of parents to vaccinate their children on time.?

UNICEF said following the growing outbreaks in the Philippines they were assisting both local and national government in an emergency national vaccination drive. ?Child death and illnesses from measles, a vaccine-preventable disease, are unacceptable,? added Sylwander.


Watch how the measles outbreak spreads when kids get vaccinated ? and when they don't


The measles crisis in the Philippines has been mounting since early last year, after a scandal around a dengue vaccination made parents hesitant about vaccinating their children. Dengvaxia, which was given to school children across the country, was accused of making children at risk of contracting a more serious form of the disease. Links were made to the deaths of several children, though nothing was ever proven.

According to data from the Epidemiology Bureau, of the 70 who have died from measles since the beginning of the year, 79% were not vaccinated.

The outbreak in the Philippines follows an alarming wave of measles cases worldwide, which has been blamed mainly on conspiracies and misinformation around vaccinations, particularly in Europe and the US. There has been a 30% increase on measles cases worldwide since 2016, according to WHO.

Overall, south-east Asia is one of the few regions where measles vaccinations are on the rise but other countries in the region have seen recent outbreaks similar to the Philippines. In November last year, a measles crisis was declared in the majority-muslim southern regions of Thailand, which have high levels of poverty, even though the disease was said to be almost eradicated in Thailand. There were 4,000 measles cases reported in Thailand last year, causing the deaths of at least 22 children.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019...inian-outbreak

Measles cases more than tripled across Europe in 2018, and one country drove much of the surge: Ukraine. Nearly 83,000 cases of measles were reported in the World Health Organization?s (WHO?s) European Region in 2018, compared with some 25,500 in 2017, WHO, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, announced last week. Ukraine had more than 54,000 cases in 2018, its government says. Last year, 16 Ukrainians died of the extremely contagious viral disease, which is easily prevented with a vaccine.

?The current epidemic is the most massive in the entire postvaccine period,? says Nataliya Vynnyk, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children?s Clinical Hospital in Kyiv. With more than 15,000 cases and seven deaths between 28 December 2018 and 1 February, according to the country?s Ministry of Health (MOH), the epidemic continues to worsen.

Ukraine?s government is taking action. ?It?s egregious to have people have measles in the 21st century in a European country,? says Ulana Suprun, a physician who has been Ukraine?s acting minister of health since August 2016. She blames a decade of corruption, war, a lack of political commitment to vaccination, and antivaccine sentiment.

Measles is spread by respiratory droplets. Most people recover, but the disease can cause sometimes-fatal complications including pneumonia and inflammation of the brain. Typically, children are vaccinated around their first birthday and again before starting school. According to WHO, 95% of children need to be fully vaccinated to stop the disease from spreading.

Elsewhere in Europe, vaccine skepticism has given the virus an opening. Cases in Greece doubled from 2017 to 2018; cases in France grew nearly sixfold. Meanwhile, the United States logged 372 cases last year. An outbreak in Washington this year has resulted in 53 confirmed cases as of 11 February, nearly all in unvaccinated children, pushing the U.S. year-to-date tally above 100.

In the past decade, vaccine refusal has also played a big role in Ukraine. In 2008, a day after receiving the measles vaccine, a 17-year-old died?from an unrelated cause, according to WHO and the United Nations International Children?s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). His death led to a huge loss of confidence among parents: Vaccination rates plunged from 97% of 1-year-olds in 2007 to 56% in 2010. Coverage then slowly improved, reaching 79% in 2012 and 2013.

But in 2014, then-President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after violent protests, Russia annexed Crimea, and armed conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine. Paralyzed, the government failed to order measles vaccine until late 2015. Because of shortages, in 2016, Ukraine vaccinated only 42% of its infants. And that year, just 31% of 6-year-olds received the recommended second measles shot?one of the lowest rates in the world.

?If you have a high rate of unvaccinated children, you will face this kind of outbreak,? says Vusala Allahverdiyeva, a physician who is a technical officer in WHO?s Kyiv office.

There are other problems, too. Authorities have grappled with basic challenges. Investigating an outbreak of 90 cases in children in a mountainous region in western Ukraine in 2018, MOH found the children had been vaccinated at a clinic that experienced frequent power outages and had no generator. (The vaccine must be stored at less than 8?C to be effective.)

A faulty vaccine may also have played a role. According to MOH, more than 20,000 of those infected in 2018 were adults who would have been vaccinated decades ago with a Russian vaccine that was dropped in 2001. The ministry is trying to identify whether that vaccine was less effective in some years, with an eye to revaccinating those who received it.

MOH has been striving to catch up. It is now procuring vaccine more cheaply through UNICEF, sending mobile vaccination brigades from school to school in Lviv, a hard-hit area, and preparing to provide cash incentives to Ukraine?s underpaid physicians to vaccinate all children in their practices. In 2017, the country?s coverage rebounded to 93% of infants and 91% of 6-year-olds.

But because of Ukraine?s large pool of unvaccinated or undervaccinated people, the epidemic roars on. ?We need to start thinking outside the box,? Suprun says. For instance, UNICEF is working with the government on a campaign urging grandparents, who often care for young children in Ukraine, to get their charges vaccinated.

The Ukrainian outbreak caps a year in which measles cases surged around the globe. As of mid-January, WHO had received reports of more than 229,000 measles cases in 2018. The global number is expected to rise by the time it is finalized in June, but it?s already a 32% increase from 2017.

?The root cause of the measles outbreaks ? is a failure to adequately vaccinate,? says Katrina Kretsinger, the lead measles expert at WHO headquarters. ?Many people in many countries remain susceptible, and large pockets of susceptible persons can lead to large outbreaks.?

[Jumaki15]

Fuck you, Jenny McCarthy!

[KambingSociety]

Fuck you, Jenny McCarthy!

Jenny McCarthy is only a puppet. Andrew Wakefield is the mastermind of this Measles issue.

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

Here is the latest CDC report on Measles in the USA.

[Jumaki15]

Jenny McCarthy is only a puppet. Andrew Wakefield is the mastermind of this Measles issue.

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

Here is the latest CDC report on Measles in the USA.

Well obviously. Jenny McCarthy isn't going to be remembered as some one who had any kind of intelligence at all. She was the co-hot of a shitty dating show on MTV in the mid 90's, has been in a handful of movies, only one of which I care about at all (Baseketball), and she dated Jim Carey. Noble Prize winner she will never be. She probably can't finish all the puzzles in an issue of Highlights for Kids.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.usnews.com/news/healthie...ific-northwest

And 100 people in the U.S. so far for Measles

HE NUMBER OF MEASLES cases in the U.S. has reached the triple digits in a little over a month.

Federal health officials say 101 measles cases had been reported in 10 states this year as of Feb. 7. Many have been concentrated in Washington state, where the growing number of cases has driven local demand for vaccines and fueled debate nationwide over vaccine exemptions for non-medical reasons.

The measles outbreak in Clark County, Washington, consisted of 53 confirmed and two suspected cases of the highly contagious viral infection as of Tuesday morning. Officials also had confirmed one case in King County, Washington, which includes Seattle, and four cases in Multnomah County, Oregon, which includes Portland. Most cases have occurred among unvaccinated children.

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The Antivax Movement Thrives Here

The surge in cases is "not surprising" given the rise of anti-vaccine activism and a recent importation of cases from outside the country, says Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who heads the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"U.S.-based anti-vaccine energy has gained ground in the last decade, increasing vulnerability of more and more young people – especially in older children and adults who were not vaccinated as infants," Marrazzo says.

Most states allow religious exemptions for school vaccination requirements, and 17 states, including Washington and Oregon, allow parents to exempt their children for personal, moral or other beliefs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

So far in 2019, outbreaks of three or more cases also have been reported in Texas, New York City and New York's Monroe and Rockland counties. Cases additionally have been reported in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois and New Jersey, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Outbreaks in New York City and Rockland County have been ongoing since last year, and have been concentrated among Orthodox Jewish communities. Health officials in Texas, meanwhile, have confirmed seven cases, mostly among young children, since Jan. 1, compared with nine confirmed cases in 2018 and just one in 2017.

In 2018, 26 states and the District of Columbia reported 372 confirmed cases of measles, a preliminary tally but the second-highest since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. The only year with a higher case count was 2014: Many of the 667 cases that year were linked to an outbreak in the Philippines, and many occurred among unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio, according to the CDC.

An uptick in measles cases in any given year can be caused by international travelers who bring the virus back to the U.S. Measles also can spread quickly in areas with "pockets of unvaccinated people," the CDC says.

Current outbreaks have been linked to travel to countries such as Ukraine and Israel, the CDC says. In 2018, Ukraine was responsible for about 64 percent of all measles cases reported in the World Health Organization's European region, and the number of cases more than tripled in the region between 2017 and 2018.

RELATED CONTENT


WHO: Anti-Vaccine Movement a Top Threat

Measles is so contagious that nearly everyone who isn't immunized and comes into contact with the virus will get sick. The virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves the area, and causes fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a rash.

In Clark County, the majority of patients have been unvaccinated children under 10 years old. State data show only about 77 percent of Clark County kindergarteners had completed their vaccinations for the 2017-2018 school year, among the lowest rates in the state.

Health experts say roughly 95 percent of people should be vaccinated to create "herd immunity" against a contagious disease like measles. Demand for vaccinations has skyrocketed in Clark County, Kaiser Health News reported, with requested orders of the vaccine reaching 3,150 doses in January, up from 530 in the same period last year.

But if vaccination rates remain low overall, "you still have a group of people who can fuel the fire of ongoing transmission," Marrazzo says.

In California, a Disneyland-linked outbreak identified in early 2015 sickened about 150 people and prompted the state to tighten its vaccination exemption laws. In Washington, lawmakers heard testimony last week on a bill that would remove the ability of parents to claim personal and philosophical exemptions from the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine for their school-age children.

A similar measure failed in 2015 after facing opposition.

"The challenge we face is that most people haven't seen this, the effects of an outbreak," Washington Secretary of Health John Wiesman told reporters last week, according to The Washington Post. "If you travel the world, people will line up for this vaccine, because they have seen it."

[KambingSociety]

Well obviously. Jenny McCarthy isn't going to be remembered as some one who had any kind of intelligence at all. She was the co-hot of a shitty dating show on MTV in the mid 90's, has been in a handful of movies, only one of which I care about at all (Baseketball), and she dated Jim Carey. Noble Prize winner she will never be. She probably can't finish all the puzzles in an issue of Highlights for Kids.

True but we need to go the epicenter Andrew Wakefield.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.66d40de73d24

And now the Philippines has been hit by the Measles issue with 70 deaths being reported and allegations of Anti Vaccine activists scaring people from vaccines in the country.

[KambingSociety]

Well obviously. Jenny McCarthy isn't going to be remembered as some one who had any kind of intelligence at all. She was the co-hot of a shitty dating show on MTV in the mid 90's, has been in a handful of movies, only one of which I care about at all (Baseketball), and she dated Jim Carey. Noble Prize winner she will never be. She probably can't finish all the puzzles in an issue of Highlights for Kids.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/darla-...ticles&via=rss

An Update Now Darla Shine is named in a Jenny McCarthy type rant on the Measles issue.

The wife of a top Trump White House official went on an unhinged anti-vaccination Twitter rant Wednesday morning, wrongly suggesting that the deadly measles virus could be beneficial.

Darla Shine, a former Fox News producer, is the wife of Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive and current White House deputy chief of staff for communications. Her rant was sparked by a CNN segment on the measles outbreak in Washington and Oregon, which has thus far seen more than 50 unvaccinated individuals contracting the disease.


“Here we go LOL #measlesoutbreak on #CNN,” she wrote in response to the segment. “#Fake #Hysteria.”

“The entire Baby Boom population alive today had the #Measles as kids,” she bizarrely added. “Bring back our #ChildhoodDiseases they keep you healthy & fight cancer.”

The MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine has been repeatedly proven by scientific circles to be safe and effective against measles, which causes painful rashes that can potentially affect organs and lead to death, particularly among those whose immune systems are compromised.

Nevertheless, Shine doubled down on her anti-vaccination claim, suggesting that her having measles was similar to a child getting chicken pox and gaining lifelong immunity. “I had the #Measles #Mumps #ChickenPox as a child and so did every kid I knew,” she wrote. “Sadly my kids had #MMR so they will never have the life long natural immunity I have. Come breathe on me!”

Shine is correct that having measles as a child protected her from getting the disease again, but she’s wrong that her kids having received the MMR vaccine is “sad.”

Because the disease was eradicated in the U.S. in the early 1990s, people born after that time do not have the immunity to fight the disease. Shine’s children were not only protected from potential death, but also were able to protect others from contracting the disease through herd immunity—or the idea that since most people in a population had the vaccine, they were protected as a “herd.”

In fact, most measles-related deaths are in children under the age of 5 and adults over the age of 30 who are unvaccinated. Measles grants immunity after the disease has passed but can cause serious lifelong issues like blindness, encephalitis (brain swelling), and severe respiratory issues that can lead to pneumonia and death.

After several more tweets accusing her critics of being “trolls” or “Democrat Russian bots,” Shine went so far as to suggest that the measles virus kills cancer.

Of course, Shine’s claim that having measles will stave off cancer is completely wrong.

The research she cited was a clinical experiment in which six myeloma patients were given a “concentrated, lab-engineered measles virus,” according to a 2014 story from CNN. In basic terms, the measles virus linked cancer cells together, then exploded, mirroring what the immune system should do but wasn’t done for a cancer patient. The experiment was successful in sending one patient to remission, but the other patients didn’t respond.

The irony? The virus that was given as part of the therapy was structured similarly to a measles vaccine.

Shine’s comments invited immediate scorn from prominent media figures, who noted that a top White House official’s wife was actively spreading anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.

[KambingSociety]

https://abc13.com/health/suspected-m...chool/5135214/

A Texas School is under investigation for Measles

LA PORTE, Texas (KTRK) -- A suspected case of measles is under investigation at La Porte Elementary School, according to a letter sent to parents Tuesday.

According to La Porte ISD, it is working with Harris County Public Health to "take all steps necessary to ensure the well-being of our students" and "as a precautionary measure, we are disinfecting all classrooms and common areas at the campus."

District director of communications, Terri Cook, said students are expected to attend school as usual on Wednesday, which is a scheduled early release day.

The student with the suspected case is in prekindergarten. No other information was released due to privacy laws.

"Commonly it's spread by going to another country and coming into contact with un-vaccinated people or people travelling here from countries where vaccination is not as prevalent," said Davita Hall, a mother and nurse practitioner at AFC Urgent Care in La Porte. "We just advise people to vaccinate your kids against measles."

Earlier this month, health officials in Harris, Montgomery and Galveston counties each reported at least one confirmed case of the illness.

According to Montgomery County officials, a 2-year-old girl is recovering from the disease. They also said this case is connected to one of the Harris County cases, but details of the connection were not immediately disclosed.

Galveston County Health District also confirmed a case involving a boy whose age ranges from 12 to 24 months old. The child was tested on Jan. 28, and officials said the case is part of a cluster in the region.

Earlier Monday, Harris County Public Health said two boys under the age of two and a 25 to 35-year-old woman were diagnosed with the measles. All three patients live in northwest Harris County.

Measles is a highly contagious virus spread through direct contact or through the air.

Symptoms include a high fever, coughing, runny nose and watery, red eyes between seven and 14 days after infection, the U.S. National Library of Medicine says.
However, measles is preventable.

Health officials are encouraging everyone to protect themselves from the virus by being vaccinated.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/...al/2811622002/

Here is the rest of the fallout.

[KambingSociety]

[KambingSociety]

https://www.sciencealert.com/latest-...drew-wakefield

The Latest Reported Measles Outbreak Could Basically Be Blamed on Andrew Wakefield
JACINTA BOWLER 19 FEB 2019
As of Friday, seven cases of measles have been reported to the British Columbia (BC) Centre for Disease Control, in Canada in the latest outbreak of this vaccine-preventable disease.


That may seem low compared to the 62 cases currently recorded in Washington State, but with 87.3 percent of two-year-olds in BC having had received their measles, mumps and rebella (MMR) vaccine in 2017, it's a good reminder that even just a few unvaccinated people in the community can have huge unintended consequences.

For example, this current outbreak in BC may have started due to three unvaccinated children who contracted measles during a trip to Vietnam.

After a number of hospital visits and a few days back at school, the youngest was finally tested for measles, and the disease was confirmed.

The dad of these kids has stepped forward to tell his side of the story. Sadly, it shows that even 20 years later, the dangerous and completely false 'vaccines cause autism' myth is still damaging families.

"We worried 10-12 years ago because there was a lot of debate around the MMR vaccine," the father explained in an interview with CBC News. "Doctors were coming out with research connecting the MMR vaccine with autism. So we were a little concerned."​​


Given that paediatricians worldwide are constantly working to dispel this MMR vaccine conspiracy, the 'doctor' this dad was likely thinking of is none other than infamous Andrew Wakefield – a discredited former doctor who wrote a controversial, unethical, and fraudulent research paper claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism back in 1998.

Since then, researchers across the world have shown time and time again that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, but sadly Wakefield and his bogus claims keep popping up like a dangerous game of whack-a-mole.

Over 20 years after publishing this 'study', and nearly 10 years after it was retracted and he was struck off the UK medical register, Wakefield's dangerous claims are still causing direct harm to children whose parents have been convinced not to vaccinate in fear of their children developing a lifelong condition.

We need about 95 percent vaccine coverage to stop outbreaks from happening. This means that those who are too young or sick to receive vaccinations are still protected from the diseases that are likely to cause them the most harm.


But across the world, we're sitting at around 85 percent – much lower than where we need to be. Another issue is anti-vaxxer pockets, towns or areas where the vaccination rates are lower than the average, usually due to successful misinformation campaigns from anti-vaxxers.

And then there's the issue of anti-vaccination Facebook advertising to vulnerable populations like pregnant women.

The misinformation is out there and it's extremely dangerous, as this outbreak shows - after all, parents just want what's best for their children.

"We're not anti-vaccination," the father explained to CBC News. "We're just very cautious parents and we just tried to do it in the manner that was the least invasive possible on the child's health."

The problem is, whether parents have completely fallen down the antivax rabbit hole, or are indeed just 'cautious' about what vaccines could do to their child, the results are the same if the child doesn't get vaccinated.

"There's nothing else where you would accept a risk of one in 3,000-5,000 of your child dying," said Natasha Crowcroft, from Public Health Ontario in an interview with Global News.

"If you were going to Canada's Wonderland, and they said, 'It's a really safe ride but every 3,000-5,000 rides, someone is going to die,' nobody would get on that ride."

Thankfully, we're seeing another emerging trend - some of the kids who are becoming old enough to decide for themselves are actively choosing vaccines, even if it means defying their parents.

But first, they need to survive until adulthood.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...reak-1.5022891

The man whose family is at the centre of a measles outbreak in Vancouver said he didn't vaccinate his children because he distrusted the science at the time.

In an exclusive interview with CBC News, Emmanuel Bilodeau said he and his then-wife were influenced by reports that linked the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) with autism.

Health officials confirm measles outbreak in Vancouver after 8th case identified
"We worried 10-12 years ago because there was a lot of debate around the MMR vaccine," said Bilodeau. "Doctors were coming out with research connecting the MMR vaccine with autism. So we were a little concerned."​​

The MMR vaccine prevents measles, mumps and rubella by helping the body make antibodies to fight off the viruses. The BC Centre for Disease Control (CDC) recommends children receive two doses of the vaccine, one at 12 months of age and the second dose at five to six years of age.

There is no scientific evidence linking the vaccine to autism, says the CDC.

Bilodeau said he knows now the link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been debunked.

"We're not anti-vaccination," he said. "We're just very cautious parents and we just tried to do it in the manner that was the least invasive possible on the child's health."

"We were hoping we could find a vaccine that was given in a separate shot so it wasn't such a hit on the kid," he said.

Family trip abroad
Bilodeau believes one of his three sons contracted measles during a family trip to Vietnam earlier this year and that it has since spread at the French-language schools his children attend.

Dr. Althea Hayden of Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) said on Friday Vancouver was facing an "outbreak" of measles after confirming eight cases affecting students, staff and parents at ?cole Jules-Verne and ?cole Anne-H?bert in South Vancouver and ?cole Rose-des-vents in Oakridge.​

As measles outbreak grips Washington, a health expert argues vaccination is a child's human right
Bilodeau said he brought his sons to a travel clinic on Broadway Street before their trip where they received other vaccinations, but not for measles.

It was on the plane ride home that his 11-year-old son began experiencing symptoms, including fever.

Bilodeau brought him to BC Children's Hospital on Jan. 21. He said medical staff were aware that the boy hadn't been vaccinated, but they ruled out measles and instead conducted tests for malaria and influenza.

His other two sons started showing symptoms soon after, but it took several trips to the hospital before it was determined measles was the culprit although Bilodeau says he mentioned the possibility to doctors.

A spokesperson for BC Children's Hospital declined to comment on this specific case but provided a statement by email.

THE NATIONAL TODAYMeasles outbreaks now a global problem thanks to anti-vaxxers

"Our physicians and staff thoroughly assess each child that presents in our Emergency Department and treat them accordingly. Should a parent raise a concern about a specific disease, including measles, it would be discussed and then followed up on as appropriate," said the statement.

A blood test ordered by VCH has since confirmed his youngest son has measles, and the other two are still waiting for confirmation, Bilodeau said.

'Vaccine hesitancy' concerning
Monika Naus, medical director at CDC, said "vaccine hesitancy" among parents could lead to a resurgence of preventable diseases.

"We've been concerned about that in British Columbia for a long time," said Naus.​​

Measles can lead to serious complications in some children, including pneumonia, encephalitis or death.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...ng-controversy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...=.2fd2119a2574


https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...=.9f7eac3cdf16

and the fallout gets crazier.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...032309681.html

Update 130 people reported dead due to measles.

Health officials in the Philippines say more than 130 people, mostly children, have died of measles and 8,400 others have fallen ill in an outbreak largely blamed on vaccination fears.

Infections jumped by more than 1,000 percent in metropolitan Manila, the densely packed capital of more than 12 million people, in January compared with the previous year.

About half of the 136 who died of measles were children aged one to four, according to officials. Many of those who lost their lives had not been inoculated.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Monday a massive immunisation drive that started last week in Manila and four provincial regions may contain the outbreak by April.

"No ifs, no buts, no conditions, you just have to bring your children and trust that the vaccines ... will save your children," Duque urged parents. "That's the absolute answer to this outbreak."

In a televised message on Friday, President Rodrigo Duterte warned of fatal complications and urged that children be immunised.

Duque said a government information campaign was helping restore public trust in the authorities' immunisation programme, which was marred in 2017 by controversy over an anti-dengue fever vaccine made by French drugmaker Sanofi Pasteur which some officials linked to the deaths of at least three children.

READ MORE
Philippines: Vaccine scare blamed for deadly measles outbreak
The Philippine government halted the anti-dengue immunisation drive after Sanofi said a study showed the vaccine may increase the risks of severe dengue infections. More than 830,000 children were injected with the Dengvaxia vaccine under the campaign, which was launched in 2016 under then-President Benigno Aquino III. The campaign continued under Duterte until it was stopped in 2017.

"It seems the faith has come back," Duque said of public trust on the government's immunisation drive, citing the inoculation of about 130,000 of 450,000 people targeted for anti-measles vaccinations in metropolitan Manila in just a week.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus which can be spread through sneezing, coughing and close personal contact.

Complications include diarrhoea, ear infections, pneumonia and encephalitis - or the swelling of the brain - which may lead to death.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8785611.html

and how the measles fallout are affecting Americans.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/w...-outbreak.html

Japan has been hit by Measles

Health officials in Japan are combating the country’s worst measles outbreak in years, with many infections clustered among attendees of a Valentine’s Day gift fair and a religious group that avoids vaccinations.

A total of 167 cases were reported in 20 of Japan’s 47 prefectures as of Feb. 10, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said, with the largest outbreaks in the prefectures of Mie and Osaka.

It is the fastest Japan has reached that many cases at the beginning of the year since 2008.

The flare-up of the highly contagious disease comes as the United States is grappling with measles outbreaks in Texas, New York and Washington, with more than 120 cases reported so far this year. Those outbreaks have prompted a rush to vaccinate children in some places where parents have broader choice over such decisions.

In Japan, almost all of the 49 reported cases in Mie Prefecture were people connected to Miroku Community Kyusei Shinkyo, a religious group that promotes alternative healing.

The group said it emphasized avoiding medicines and vaccines and eating naturally farmed foods. But after some members became infected, the group apologized and said it was changing its practices.

“Given the unexpected situation, we will follow the health care center’s advice to get vaccine shots for measles or other highly infectious diseases so that we don’t cause concern to others,” the group said in a statement posted on its website.

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Some of the patients in the Mie Prefecture outbreak were not adequately vaccinated, said Masaya Yamato, a doctor at Rinku General Medical Center in Osaka.

“Many of the patients were young and they did not receive enough shots, maybe due to their parents’ philosophy, and the outbreak spread at their meeting,” Dr. Yamato said.

Another large cluster of measles infections is centered on a complex in Osaka that includes Japan’s tallest building, Abeno Harukas, where 21 customers and workers at a Valentine’s Day fair contracted the virus.

A handful of cases were linked to children who returned to Japan from the Philippines. The Philippines has reported a steadily growing number of measles cases and deaths this year, with the virus spreading beyond Manila, the capital, to other parts of Luzon, the country’s most populous island. In the first six weeks of 2019, more than 9,000 cases were reported, including 146 deaths, the Philippine Department of Health said.

Measles is caused by a virus, and symptoms include rashes, fevers and ear infections that in some cases can lead to permanent hearing loss. Children are particularly susceptible to the disease, with some infections leading to complications such as pneumonia or encephalitis, a swelling of the brain. The disease kills one or two children out of every 1,000 who get it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While Japan is one of the world’s richest countries, with a strong health system, researchers have noted that among developed countries it has high levels of infections of diseases that could be prevented by vaccines. A vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella was discontinued in the early 1990s after it was linked to aseptic meningitis. Since then, the government has had a wary attitude toward promoting vaccines.

That has changed somewhat in recent years though, and in 2006, Japanese health officials began recommending a second measles vaccination shot for children to increase immunization rates.

[KambingSociety]

https://www.texasobserver.org/amid-m...t-of-vaccines/

Political debate at play on Measles vaccines

Texas state Representative Bill Zedler doesn?t understand the fuss over the resurgence of infectious diseases. ?When I grew up, I had a lot of these illnesses,? he said, listing measles, mumps and chickenpox. ?They wanted me to stay at home. But as far as being sick in bed, it wasn?t anything like that,? said Zedler, an outspoken anti-vaxxer and longtime member of the House Public Health Committee who has worked in the health-care industry. The only lawmaker with an A++ rating from Texans for Vaccine Choice, he was born in 1943, two decades before the measles vaccine was developed. During Zedler?s childhood, about 450 people died of measles each year in the United States, 48,000 were hospitalized and a few million more got the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963 virtually eliminated measles in the United States by 2000.

?They want to say people are dying of measles. Yeah, in third-world countries they?re dying of measles,? Zedler said, shaking his head. ?Today, with antibiotics and that kind of stuff, they?re not dying in America.? Zedler says he?s adamantly in favor of ?freedom of conscience? and against mandatory vaccination. ?This is not the Soviet Union, you know.?

Health officials blame the recent uptick in highly contagious diseases on a growing anti-vaxxer movement and the spread of misinformation about the safety of vaccines. (The anti-vaxxer wife of the White House communications director this month tweeted ?Bring back our #ChildhoodDiseases they keep you healthy & fight cancer.?)

Texas has had eight confirmed cases of measles so far this year, and in 2017, mumps cases reached a 20-year high. Yet now Zedler and other anti-vaccine lawmakers want to make it even easier to opt out of childhood vaccinations, and they?re trying to keep the public from accessing information about exemption rates.

A bill filed in the Texas Legislature this month by Representative Matt Krause, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, would make it easier for parents to request vaccine exemptions. A similar version was left pending after a House Public Health Committee hearing in 2017, but Krause?s new bill would go further, explicitly preventing the state health department from tracking the number of exemptions. Even though the exemption data doesn?t include anything that could identify individual students and is only available at the school district level, Krause and Zedler point to fears among anti-vaxxers that they will be tracked and bullied. ?We?ve seen instances in California, stuff like that, where they start hunting people down,? Zedler said.

Public health officials say the proposal would curb their ability to identify and stop disease outbreaks, and parents of immunocompromised kids would have even less information to decide where to send their children to school.

?This is the modus operandi for anti-vaxxers in Texas: to promote exemptions, obfuscate and minimize transparency,? said Peter Hotez, a leading vaccine scientist and dean for the National School for Tropical Medicine at Baylor Medical School. ?To do this in the middle of a measles outbreak in Texas is especially unconscionable.?

In the first month and a half of this year, there were 127 confirmed measles cases in the United States, mostly among unvaccinated people. Eight cases have been confirmed in Texas, where the number of kids with ?conscience? exemptions surged from about 2,300 in 2003 to nearly 53,000 in 2017. The state had nine measles cases total in 2018 and one in 2017.
Courtesy/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Krause, who is also backed by Texans for Vaccine Choice, argues that his legislation merely streamlines the process for parents who will obtain the exemptions anyway. He dismissed the many concerns raised by medical professionals last session. ?They did a very good job of painting the worst-case scenario,? Krause told the Observer. ?I?m not so sure those fears are founded.?

Krause acknowledged that he has already fielded concerns about his bill, in particular the clause preventing the state from tracking vaccine exemptions. He said he would be willing to scrap that language ?if Texans for Vaccine Choice or some other vaccine choice groups or other folks from the medical community say that?s a bad idea.? Texans for Vaccine Choice did not respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo_
State Senator Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo

Not all Republicans are comfortable with the attacks on vaccines. ?I don?t understand the logic,? said state Senator Kel Seliger of Krause?s bill. ?There?s nothing in the information currently available that IDs which individual kids are vaccinated, so what?s the concern?? Seliger refiled a bill this session that would make information on vaccine rates more accessible, requiring the health department to publicly post exemption rates by school. ?Parents have the right to know information that concerns their kids? health,? he said. The House version of Seliger?s bill was the only other vaccine-related legislation to get a committee hearing last session, though it was never considered on the floor.

This session, the Legislature could be headed toward another stalemate. Representative J.D. Sheffield, R-Gatesville, a doctor who filed the companion bill to Seliger?s last session, told the Observer in 2017 that he?d like to see vaccine exemptions narrowed, but ?It?ll take the death of innocent children before we can eliminate this exemption of conscience.?

[KambingSociety]

https://www.statesman.com/news/20190...e-for-outbreak

Here is more

Measles is making a comeback in the United States, and with cases popping up recently in Texas, Travis County health officials say they want to prepare for a possible outbreak.

If the disease makes its way to Central Texas, medical professionals say it could become particularly problematic because Travis County and other parts of the region have some of the highest rates of people who are not vaccinated against the virus.

No measles cases have been reported in Travis County this year. However, eight cases have been confirmed statewide, including in Denton, Bell, Harris, Montgomery and Galveston counties, despite the disease having been largely eradicated in the country since 2000, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.

State health officials say they aren’t sure how people diagnosed with measles this year contracted the virus, but said that nothing seems to indicate they are related, except for one case in which a patient infected a relative.

Measles is so contagious that nine out of 10 people even standing near someone who is infected are likely to get sick, and the disease survives in the air for hours after a person leaves the room, said Coburn Allen, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

Austin Public Health on Monday sent a letter to city leaders informing them of the ways it is working to keep ahead of the illness.

The department has sent information to medical professionals on what to look for and is tracking information it receives from hospital emergency rooms to see if measles-related symptoms are on the rise, which so far, they say, hasn’t happended. Austin Public Health is also assessing its current supply of measles vaccine and developing an action plan in case of infections.

“We stand ready to address any measles cases that our community may encounter,” the memo states.

Measles looks strikingly similar to the flu early on, which can make it hard to spot at this time of year. Symptoms include fever, sore throat, congestion and red eyes. Sometimes the disease can be detected early by white spots that appear in the mouth. In the latter half of the illness, a distinctive red rash spreads from the head down the body — a sure sign of infection.

There’s no treatment for the measles. Doctors typically just prescribe Motrin and plenty of rest and water. Most of the time it isn’t fatal, with only about one or two out of every 1,000 cases resulting in death.

Part of what makes the illness so concerning is its lengthy incubation period, which can be up to 14 days and means people can be infected long before they ever show symptoms. They are contagious for four days before the rash appears and four days after it starts, when the illness is easily spread, Allen said.

The best way to guard against the virus is with a vaccine, which has been available in the U.S. since 1963. People born before that year have already likely been infected and are not at risk, health experts say.

Nowadays, kids typically get a vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella at ages 1 and 4, and they are required to have the two shots before they enroll at Texas public schools, unless they seek an exemption for religious or philosophical reasons. In recent years, many more people have gotten such exemptions, which has led to the resurgence in the virus, medical professionals say.

“For 20 years we said it was mostly eradicated from America,” Allen said. “But we’ve become very complacent, and there are pockets of nonvaccinators that are allowing it to come back with a vengeance.”

Travis County has one of the highest vaccination opt-out rates in the nation, ranking 13th behind Harris, Tarrant and Collin counties, according to a public health study released last year. Six of the top 25 schools with kindergartners who have not been vaccinated against the measles are located in Central Texas, including a school in Fredericksburg where only 20 percent are vaccinated, state health data show.

“We have enough of these pockets of low vaccination rates that it’s a very vulnerable time,” Allen said. “We are absolutely set up for an epidemic to occur.”

Health officials in Washington state say a recent outbreak of measles there largely stems from people opting out of vaccinations. So far, 66 people in that state have been infected with the illness this year, prompting the governor to declare a public health emergency.

“Vaccines do work, and that is the best way to protect yourselves and others,” said Chris Crookham, who works in emergency preparedness for Austin Public Health. The measles vaccine is particularly effective, guarding against infection almost 97 percent of the time.

State health department spokesman Chris Van Deusen said the latest cases in Texas don’t seem to be related to vaccine exemptions.

He said people usually contract the illness while traveling to places with high rates of infection, like Asia or Africa, but he could not say definitively if that’s how these latest cases were contracted since the health departments are still investigating.

No one in Travis County has been infected with the measles since at least 2006, according to publicly available state health department data. The year with the highest number of reported cases in Texas in the last decade was 2013, when 27 people became infected, which was largely the result of an outbreak at a megachurch in Tarrant County where people had not been vaccinated.

People who think they have the measles should not go to the hospital, since the virus is so contagious and can be problematic for people with compromised immune systems, medical professionals say. Health officials urge people to stay home and to call their local health authority and ask for a doctor to visit them at their home. People who do go to the hospital are urged to call ahead.

[KambingSociety]

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcar...ine-exemptions

Here is more on the debates on Vaccine Opt out laws. .

[KambingSociety]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/27/healt...-bn/index.html

(CNN)Amid a significant rise in measles cases across the United States, lawmakers met in a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss what has been called "a growing public health threat."

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce held the hearing, which included talks around response efforts for the current measles outbreak and where in the country vaccination rates of the recommended measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are found to be low.
How vaccines stop diseases like measles

How vaccines stop diseases like measles 01:26
"I do believe that parents' concerns about vaccines leads to undervaccination, and most of the cases that we're seeing are in unvaccinated communities," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during the hearing.
Nationally, the United States has high measles vaccination coverage.
"However, there are pockets of people who are vaccine-hesitant. ... Outbreaks of measles occur when measles gets into these communities of unvaccinated people," she said. "The only way to protect against measles is to get vaccinated."
America's climbing measles cases
There have been 159 cases of measles confirmed across 10 states this year: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington, according to a report released by the CDC on Monday.

Lawmakers discussed concerns around the spread of medically inaccurate information online relating to the measles vaccine -- and whether addressing that misinformation might be a way to stop outbreaks before they start.
For instance, Facebook has announced plans "to reduce the distribution of health-related misinformation" on its social media platform, a representative for the company said this month.
Around the same time measles cases have been rising nationwide, anti-vaccination groups have been vocal on Facebook, sharing and posting information against the safety of vaccines.
"I'm really concerned about the misinformation, but I also understand how complicated it is for parents," Messonnier said.
Even though there has been a small but slowly growing number of young unvaccinated children in the United States, CDC research shows that most parents continue to have confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the measles vaccine, Messonnier said.
She added that parents should talk to their children's pediatricians if they have any concerns.
Messonnier also noted that a lack of adequate access to health care can be a barrier to getting vaccinations, as has been seen in some rural and low-income communities.

Anti-vaccination content often claims that vaccines are unsafe -- such as that they can cause autism -- even though research has debunked such claims and the CDC points to its vaccine safety system to ensure that vaccines are as safe as possible.
The CDC website notes that common side effects of the MMR vaccine include a sore arm from the shot, fever, mild rash, and temporary pain and stiffness in the joints. Serious side effects, including allergic reactions and febrile seizures, are rare.
Messonnier said patients should talk to their doctor about their or their child's personal risk for rare side effects.
At one point during the hearing, anti-vaccination activists in the audience could be heard objecting to testimonies by Messonnier and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
One woman in the audience raised an anti-vaccination book in the air. Another rubbed her fingers together, making the hand gesture for money.
'The sad thing is, this is a completely solvable problem'
The CDC recommends that children get two doses of MMR vaccine: the first dose at 12 through 15 months of age and the second at 4 through 6 years of age.
"You have one of the most contagious viruses known to man juxtaposed against one of the most effective vaccines we have," Fauci said at the hearing.
He added that there are two reasons why following vaccine recommendations remain important: "One, it is for the safety of your own child, and the other is a responsibility for your own community. ... We all have a responsibility to be part of that umbrella of herd immunity."

Herd immunity refers to how a disease can be kept from easily spreading through a community based on the proportion of people in that community who are immune to the disease, such as through vaccination.
To achieve this for measles, the population immune needs to be 93% to 95%. "With measles, because it is so contagious, you have to have a herd immunity greater than 90%," said Dr. Robert Murphy, professor and director of the Center for Global Health at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, who was not involved in Wednesday's hearing.
"That means that only 7 out of 100 people really would be at risk for getting measles. If somebody had measles, the likelihood that they would run into one of those seven is pretty low," he said, adding that in some communities facing measles outbreaks, herd immunity has dropped well below 93%.
"It's amazing that we actually have to have congressional hearings with what's going on today," said Murphy, who has treated children and adults with measles. "The sad thing is, this is a completely solvable problem, because we have a safe and very effective vaccine."
.

Measles is a potentially deadly respiratory illness caused by the measles virus, and symptoms typically include high fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes and a rash of flat red spots. The virus spreads through coughing and sneezing and can live in the air for up to two hours after an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, after a vaccination program. Elimination is defined by no continuous disease transmissions occurring for greater than 12 months.
Even though it has been declared eliminated in America, "measles continues to circulate globally, which means unvaccinated US travelers can be exposed to measles and bring it back home with them," Messonnier said at the hearing.
Measles remains a common disease in many areas around the world, including areas in Europe, Asia, the Pacific and Africa, according to the CDC.

[KambingSociety]

https://komonews.com/news/nation-wor...tinue-to-climb

Update

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has counted more measles cases in the first two months of this year than in all of 2017 — and part of the rising threat is misinformation that makes some parents balk at a crucial vaccine, federal health officials told Congress Wednesday.

Yet the vaccine is hugely effective and very safe — so the rise of measles cases "is really unacceptable," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health.

The disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, which means it was not being spread domestically. But cases have been rising in recent years, and 2019 is shaping up to be a bad one.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing bemoaned what's called "vaccine hesitancy," meaning when people refuse or delay vaccinations.

"These outbreaks are tragic since they're completely avoidable," said Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky.

"This is a public health problem for which science has already provided a solution," agreed Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

Here are some questions and answers about measles:

Q: How dangerous is measles?

A: Measles typically begins with a high fever, and several days later a characteristic rash appears on the face and then spreads over the body. Among serious complications, 1 in 20 patients get pneumonia, and 1 in 1,000 get brain swelling that can lead to seizures, deafness or intellectual disability.

While it's rare in the U.S., 1 or 2 of every 1,000 children who get measles dies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Q: How does it spread?

A: By coughing or sneezing, and someone can spread the virus for four days before the telltale rash appears, Fauci warned.

The virus can live for up to two hours in the air or on nearby surfaces. Nine of 10 unvaccinated people who come into contact with someone with measles will catch it. Fauci called it "one of the most contagious viruses known to man."

Q: How widespread is measles?

A: In the U.S., the CDC has confirmed 159 cases so far this year in 10 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. That compares to 372 cases last year, and 120 in 2017.

But measles is far more common around the world — the World Health Organization said it claimed 110,000 lives in 2017. The WHO says there's been a 30 percent increase in measles cases in recent years. Unvaccinated Americans traveling abroad, or foreign visitors here, can easily bring in the virus.

For example, a huge outbreak in Madagascar has caused more than 68,000 illnesses and 900 deaths since September. But you don't need to go as far as Madagascar — common tourist destinations like England, France, Italy and Greece had measles outbreaks last year, noted CDC's Dr. Nancy Messonnier. Nearly 83,000 people contracted measles in Europe in 2018, the highest number in a decade.

Q: How many U.S. children are vulnerable?

A: Overall about 92 percent of U.S. children have gotten the combination vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella, known as the MMR vaccine. Two shots are required, one around the first birthday and a second between age 4 and 6. Full vaccination is 97 percent effective at preventing measles.

But the CDC says 1 in 12 children doesn't receive the first dose on time, and in some places vaccination rates are far lower than the national average. For example, an outbreak in Washington state is linked to a community where only about 80 percent of children were properly vaccinated.

Q: Is the vaccine safe?

A: Yes, said Fauci and Messonnier, who point to decades of use by millions of children each year — and who made sure their own children were vaccinated.

In the late 1990s, one study linked MMR vaccine to autism but that study was found to be a fraud, and Fauci said later research found no risk of autism from the vaccine.

Still, misinformation about MMR safety is widespread. Fauci said the solution isn't to criticize people who have no way to know what's false. Instead, "we need to education them to show them what the evidence is."

Q: Why isn't everyone vaccinated?

A: Some people can't be immunized for medical reasons — including infants and people with weak immune systems — and most states allow religious exemptions. But while vaccination against a list of contagious diseases is required to attend school, 17 states allow some type of non-medical exemption for "personal, moral or other beliefs," according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Washington state, lawmakers are debating ending that personal or philosophical exemption, as are several other states. California ended a similar exemption in 2015 after a measles outbreak at Disneyland sickened 147 people and spread across the U.S. and into Canada.

[KambingSociety]

[KambingSociety]

[KambingSociety]

https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/506481572.html

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - Pam Baron, of Rocky River, was recently shocked to find out that all of the immunizations she had received as a child were no longer in her system - including anything that would protect her from the measles.


Cropped Photo: CDC
"I was going to be a volunteer at one of the area hospitals and it was going to be in the neonatal section of the hospital, and before I walked in, I was asked if I had had recent immunizations. And I looked at her and thought, 'Huh? Just in childhood.' And she goes, 'Well, do you know that they don't last?' And I said, 'No, I didn't,'" said Baron.

Baron said she decided to go through the entire grouping of immunizations that you usually get when you are a child.

With recent measles outbreaks around the country, University Hospitals' Dr. Roy Buchinsky said that every adult born between 1957 and the early 70s may need to be re-vaccinated for measles because the vaccine given at that time was not as effective as the vaccine given for measles today.

"So, we now recommend to people that are traveling abroad that are born in this time period of '57 to early '70s that they should be re-vaccinated when traveling overseas to areas that may have more measles," said Buchinsky.


If you are traveling to a part of the U.S. where there has been a measles outbreak, you also may want to consider getting re-vaccinated.

An outbreak is defined as three or more cases. In 2019, so far, there have been three outbreaks in New York state, an outbreak in Washington state, Texas and Illinois.

Baron is glad she's now protected.

"What if you were in the hospital for a surgical procedure and someone is in the room, or someone is with you that hasn't had their shots? That was enough for me to make sure I had them again," added Baron.

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the latest measles outbreak information.