Measles virus 'elimination' threatens US status.

 

Measles virus 'elimination' threatens US status.

A nationwide outbreak of measles is raising concerns that the United States is at risk of losing its status as a country where the disease has been eradicated, a distinction it has held since 2000.

As of last week, 41 cases of measles have been confirmed in 15 states and New York City, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With this, the nation is already on the way forward. A total of 58 cases were detected in 2023.

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According to Sarah Lim, an infectious disease physician and member of the Infectious Disease Society of America, this year is not a great start. Certainly, this trend will continue. Much of the focus on measles cases has been in Florida, where 10 cases have been detected in two counties so far.

The infections were also found in states including Arizona, California, Georgia, Indiana, and Maryland. The Florida Department of Health said in a statement, “While details of epidemiological investigations are confidential, many media outlets are spreading wrong information and politicizing this factor.

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 The department emphasized that, while vaccination rates are declining nationally, at least 97 percent of students at Manatee Bay Elementary In Weston, where most of the measles cases in Florida have been found this year, they have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

A concentration of Florida cases in schools, as well as the Florida Surgeon Generalof Joseph Ladapo The response to the outbreak is strictly scrutinized. In a letter to parents, Ladapo recommended keeping unvaccinated children at home for three weeks, as recommended by the CDC, but not mandated.

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The CDC recommends that people who are not immune to measles should be isolated for 21 days after possible exposure. Florida Rep.Debbie Wasserman Schultz(D) referred to.Letter from Ladappu as The reason for his removal from office.

In his letter, Ladapo cited "high rates of immunity in the community" as reasons why the state would not require unvaccinated students to stay home. This high vaccination rate ranks the U.S. as a country that has eliminated measles, but experts fear that could change if outbreaks like the one in Florida continue. “Once the status is lost, it means that cases are transmitting locally, which are not imported. And so we're already in that.  Comparable first world countries such as the UK have lost their measles eradication status in recent years, losing it in 2018 only to regain it in 2021.

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As the CDC notes, the World Health Organization defines measles eradication as "the end of measles virus endemicity in a defined geographic area (e.g., region or country) for at least 12 months in the presence of a surveillance system." absence of transfer, which has been confirmed, is performing well." “If a measles outbreak continues for a year or more, the United States may lose its measles elimination status,” the agency notes, available on its website. . ... about a measles infection, Offit...

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Federal health officials maintain a "Healthy People 2030" goal of achieving 95 percent MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) immunization coverage. Among children, the rate is down slightly from 2019, falling from the national ideal of 95 percent among kindergarteners to 93.1 in the 2022-23 school year.

The CDC estimates that this vaccination rate leaves about 250,000 kindergarteners at risk of measles infection. Unlike the flu or COVID-19 vaccines, the full measles vaccine schedule is almost completely effective in preventing infection.

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Lim emphasized that "end" does not mean "end."

The CoVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for disrupting vaccination rates among children, but Lim noted that an increase in "travel-caught" people may be contributing to concurrent cases, as travelers to these countries. Return from where measles is not eradicated.

Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Paul Offitt says two major events have affected vaccination rates since the end of measles in the U.S.: studies linking vaccines to autism and the COVID-19 pandemic. Now you've introduced hundreds of bills to basically repeal the vaccine mandate, the masking mandate, the isolation mandate, and the quarantine mandate. If people aren't too concerned about measles infection, Offett suggests it may be because they don't have a good idea of ​​what measles means, especially for children.

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"I think not only have we largely eradicated measles, but we've eradicated the memory of measles. I don't think people remember how sick measles can make you," he said. Offett said.

A measles infection usually presents with cold-like symptoms, and a characteristic rash develops a few days after the onset of symptoms. Offett emphasized that measles is "not a disease you want in the hospital" because of how contagious it is, posing a risk to immunocompromised patients.

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