When I was born there were few vaccines. For polio we ate a sugar cube. There was the DPT vaccine = diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus vaccine. We had to get that one every seven years and I dreaded it because it really hurt my arm for days. Other than those there was the tuberculosis vaccine which was administered via a bunch of pin pricks on your upper arm which left a scar. The reason they did it that way was to make sure you'd have a strong immune response. Every kid got vaccinated with what there was. In school they even had vaccination days where any kid who hadn't been vaccinated before kindergarten got them.
There was no MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella) or a vaccine for chicken pox. When I was a kid we played with kids that had these diseases so we'd get them when we were young. The reason was simple. If you get mumps as a boy in puberty, you could become sterile. If you had rubella (German measles), it wasn't bad at all for you but if your mom was pregnant there was a high chance the virus would cause severe damage to the developing baby which included damage to many organs and the brain. As kids our parents wanted us to get these illnesses to be done with them once and for all.
The one disease that people were most afraid of after polio was measles. Measles is NOT some "mild childhood disease" as some people would have you believe. Measles is a severe disease and it is practically the most contagious disease there is in the world. There is even a book written about how wonderful it is to have measles. It's better than getting presents at Christmas apparently. The book is titled "Melanie's Marvelous Measles." Here's a link to it on Amazon. Check out the comments. What a riot: http://www.amazon.com/...
infant with measles on a respirator in a hospital
I had mumps, chicken pox and rubella while in grade school. I didn't get measles and I'm very glad I didn't. Fortunately there was no measles outbreaks in the public schools I attended in Denver. I haven't worried about measles due to the fact we in the USA have been blessed with "herd vaccination" which occurs when 92% of people are vaccinated for a specific disease. Recently things have changed. There are pockets around the USA now where "herd vaccination" is no longer the case.
Where I live, there are a significant number of people who don't get their kids vaccinated. Mostly it is due to anti-government beliefs, religious beliefs and some who believe eating organic food and follow the Paleo diet is all you need to do for everything. In the county I live in the number of unvaccinated kids is TWICE the average in California. A few years ago there was a whooping cough epidemic here. Kids who got it were extremely sick for 6-12 weeks. At that time I got a booster DPT shot for free given by the county. It was only prudent to do so since I deal with the public every day at my office.
Now we've been told measles is fully expected to reach Butte County. It's not a matter of "if" but rather a matter of "when." Butte County has double the number of kindergarten children who aren't vaccinated compared to the average in other counties in California. Last year their were 5.96% of kindergarten kids who got "personal belief exemptions" from vaccinations here. The California average is 2.54%. There has not been a confirmed case of measles for 10 years here. A decade ago there was an individual case but that was back when people had their kids immunized and so it didn't spread.
toddler with measles, Santa Monica, CA
But the situation has really changed where I live since then. Today of the 19 schools in Chico, Oroville and Paradise, only 5 have 92% or more vaccinated kids. Those 5 are all public schools with rates from 99% at the highest end to 94.3% at the lowest end. BUT, the charter schools and private Christian schools are where the vaccination rates are dismal. Of charter schools the one with the highest rate of vaccinated kids is 47.62% while the one with the lowest rate is 34.78%. In private Christian schools rate of vaccinated kids range from a high of 82% at a Catholic school in Chico to a low of 58% at a Seventh Day Adventist school here in Paradise where I live.
Herd vaccination for measles and all other childhood diseases does NOT exist any longer in Butte County. In California the latest statistics are that in 2014 one in 40 school kids are not vaccinated. In Butte County it's about one in 17 kids that have not been vaccinated. Clearly when measles get to Butte County, there will be an outbreak.
Here's the real kicker for me. The school with the lowest vaccination rate at 34.78% is a charter school located in the building next door to my office. It's a whopping 40 feet from my office door to that charter school. Three buildings away from that charter school is the Chico Police station from where all the cops come and go to then travel throughout the entirety of Chico. Smileycreek asked her sister, who is a pediatric nurse practitioner, if the proximity of that school to our office was close enough for a person without immunity to contract measles. Her answer was a resounding "absolutely."
We've been hearing a lot about measles. A lot of what is being said is pure bunk. I'm going to tell you some actual facts about measles. First off, I want to show you how contagious it is. Let's look at some really scary diseases that people contract from others. I'm going to list them in order from least contagious to most contagious:
Ebola: 1 contagious person will contaminate on average 2-3 people
Hepatitis C: 1 contagious person will contaminate on average 2-3 people
HIV: 1 contagious person will contaminate on average 2-4 people
Flu: 1 contagious person will contaminate on average 2-4 people
SARS: 1 contagious person will contaminate on average 2-5 people.
Mumps: 1 contagious person will contaminate on average 4-7 people
Polio: 1 contagious person will contaminate on average 5-7 people
Measles: 1 contagious person will contaminate on average 12-18 people.
child with measles, San Diego, CA
Why is measles so extremely contagious? It's because where it hangs out as it incubates is the upper trachea, not the lungs or sinuses. It is airborne but can also be gotten from touching any object previously touched by a contagious person for at least 2 hours. You can get it from an infected person sneezing or coughing near you. BUT, because it's in your upper trachea, no cough or sneeze is needed to propel an infected mist from the lungs as is the case with the flu. Measles is commonly gotten by simply talking with someone who's infected.
A person is contagious for up to 10 days before they have any symptoms. They don't know it of course. If you talk with them, they can infect you. If you have a meal with them, they can infect you. If you are standing in line at Disney Land out in the open air and just breathing normally, they can infect you if any of the air they exhale drifts your way. And because it survives for at least two hours, touching anything with it then touching your lips, nose or eyes will contaminate you as well.
What happens when you finally get sick? The first 3-5 days you have a very high fever (104-105 is typical. Brain damage occurs for certain if your temperature reaches 108. If you have a sustained temperature of 104-105 for 48 to 72 hours, your brain can also be damaged so you need to take cold baths to lower your temperature). You have a splitting headache and are absolutely listless during this time yet have no rash. When measles finally erupts as a rash, your fever drops. Frequently there is brain swelling which can directly cause brain damage (this is the main cause of people dying from measles). Another tell-tale sign is the rash must also be seen in the back of the mouth and throat (many viral infections cause rashes on the skin). Some people die from measles due to edema in the lungs.
According to Butte County Health Officer Dr. Mark Lundberg, the last time there was a measles outbreak in California was in the 1980's in Modesto, CA. Children suffered significantly, he said. Two out of every 1000 residents got measles and one in 1000 residents was left with permanent neurological injury which is 50% of those measles sufferers.
Those with measles often need to be hospitalized. Half of those that contracted measles in Disney Land recently were hospitalized. I'm telling you measles is not some mild childhood disease. I don't care how marvelous Melanie's measles are for her. She's a fictional character and her experience has nothing to do with reality. Where Melanie lives there must be unicorns and Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
measles does not discriminate
If you are younger than 50 years old, you have almost surely never seen measles which includes doctors under the age of 50. Ask retired doctors in their 70's or older what they think about measles. It was always an extremely feared disease. Don't let anyone fool you into believing anything less. Two days ago I had got a MMR vaccination. It will take 5 days for me to become immune to measles. It wasn't easy to find the vaccine. I called pharmacies in Paradise but none had any. They ran out about a month ago and haven't been able to get any since the Disney Land outbreak. Smileycreek contacted a pharmacy in Chico which had one dose left. She had it saved for me and an hour later I was down there getting my shot.
The reason it's hard to come by right now is due to all the current publicity about measles. Folks that hadn't gotten their children vaccinated are doing it now. I'm glad some of these previous anti-vaxxers have finally grown up. I've personally gotten one person to get her kids immunized who was totally against vaccinations before. Pharmacies don't carry the MMR vaccine in any quantity since you should have been vaccinated for it by the time you are 1 years old if you are less than 50 years old.
Please don't gamble with measles and your kid's or the public's health!
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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