Measles is a dangerous contagious disease that kills again. This is because vigilance towards “Morbill” – as it is called in Latin – has steadily declined in recent years. Why? Because anti-vaccination movements are taking the floor, and more and more people believe them. They don’t want to vaccinate their children. More and more of them are dying. In the latest report, NIK informs that this year the infamous record in the number of refusals of compulsory vaccinations in Poland may be broken.
- In Kwidzyn, epidemiological supervision has just covered a thousand people. All those around four Ukrainian citizens diagnosed with measles two days ago
- Anti-vaccines spread theories: vaccination causes autism, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, allergies, cancer
- Measles is not a mild childhood disease. It is a very contagious viral disease that spreads very easily among unvaccinated people
- The most serious complication after getting measles is pneumonia. It causes death in 6 out of 100 children and – equally fatal – subacute sclerosing encephalitis
- If an infected person sneezes on the ATM keyboard, then the next unvaccinated and non-immune person – paying cash, will surely get infected
- Just 67 years ago, one person fell ill in Greenland. It caused a large-scale epidemic: in six weeks, out of the 4300 inhabitants, only 5 people remained sick
Unvaccinated children are a threat
Dr. Iwona Paradowska-Stankiewicz, the national epidemiology consultant, warns against not vaccinating children and warns – Unvaccinated children are a threat to other toddlers, and also to all of us. Although it is their parents’ choice not to vaccinate their children, the more such cases, the worse it is for all of us. This is because the so-called herd immunity. It consists in the fact that if a sufficiently large number of people are vaccinated in a given community: at the level of 90 percent, the virus or bacteria against which we are protected by vaccination will not spread. The last time people died en masse almost a hundred years ago. You can never be sure that the disease that has been vaccinated will not return to attack with redoubled force.
Anti-vaccine myths
One of the myths opposed to measles vaccination is that the injection causes autism in children. This theory was disseminated by Andrew Wakefield, a former British gastroenterologist. In 1998, he published an article in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet proving that the vaccine also causes inflammation of the intestines.
It soon turned out that the work was highly unreliable. Wakefield was prosecuted for 217 days. He was proved to be wrong with 36 falsehoods from his research. Ultimately, the doctor was denied the right to practice. And it’s for life.
Anti-vaccinators also spread other theories: that vaccinations cause asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, allergies, and cancer. They also maintain that doctors are paid by pharmaceutical companies to make vaccines and that they corrupt the curricula of medical students. All this to sell as many of your products as possible.
The vaccine is safe
Meanwhile, research has been conducted all over the world that strongly contradicts these myths. The problem of measles and vaccination against Morbillis have been dealt with since the 90s, among others US Food and Drug Administration FDA, World Health Organization WHO, European Medicines Agency EMA.
In the UK, USA, Germany and France, researchers have shown conclusively: the measles vaccine does not cause any developmental disorders in children. Neither can autism, retinopathy, inflammation of the auditory nerve, nor cerebellar ataxia.
The researchers emphasize that the vaccine is safe, although it is worth remembering that it contains live, weakened measles viruses. Therefore, it can sometimes cause a vaccine reaction similar to the course of the disease itself. However, it happens once in several hundred vaccinations and is not harmful to health.
Measles kills
Measles is not a mild childhood disease. It is a very contagious viral disease that spreads very easily among unvaccinated people. Its symptoms usually appear about 10-12 days after infection. Initially, they resemble a cold: the patient complains of a runny nose, cough, fever, burning conjunctiva. Photophobia develops. But body temperature rises to 41 degrees Celsius. An itchy rash appears.
If the virus attacks a person with a weak immune system, complications arise. They can be very serious: inflammation of the ear which results in deafness; acute inflammation and swelling of the brain leading to seizures and mental disorders in children. The measles virus can attack the cornea of the eye, and as a result a child becomes blind – especially if he is malnourished and has a vitamin A deficiency in the body.
The most serious complication after getting measles is pneumonia. It causes death in 6 out of 100 children and – equally fatal – subacute sclerosing encephalitis. Importantly, the latter consequence of developing measles can manifest itself many years after infection.
The death toll of the epidemic
In the past, measles outbreaks occurred regularly every 2-3 years. Even in the 60s, doctors considered the disease a common childhood ailment. In the American Journal of Medical Science, the medical journal even compares: “measles is as inevitable as death and taxes.”
However, there were some particularly serious epidemics. In 1848, she arrived in Hawaii and killed about 40 patients. Another raged in 1873 in Florida, when about 30 people died of measles. And just 67 years ago, one person fell ill in Greenland. It caused a large-scale epidemic: in six weeks, out of the 4300 inhabitants, only 5 people remained sick. Thirty sick people died.
Today, measles takes the greatest death toll in the countries of Africa and Asia. This is because only half of the children are vaccinated there. As a result, the death rate from measles in Africa and Asia is as high as 15 percent.
Unfortunately, this dangerous disease also affects Europe. The World Health Organization’s calculations show that from 2010 to 2014, a total of almost 67 people were diagnosed with the Oder. Most of them are in France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Romania.
Just sneeze
Measles is caused by a virus isolated in 1953. It resembles a 0,2 micron ball and spreads easily. Usually by droplet route, as it first attacks the respiratory epithelial cells in the nose and throat. There it multiplies and goes out together with the secretions from the respiratory tract: when coughing, blowing the nose, talking. The virus is not very viable, it dies easily when exposed to light and heat. But it happens that outside the body it can survive up to two hours. If an infected person sneezes at an ATM keyboard, for example, then the next, unvaccinated and vulnerable person who withdraws cash, will surely become infected.
Dr. Paweł Grzesiowski, president of the Institute for Infection Prevention in Warsaw, emphasized in an interview with PAP that the measles virus is so small and light that it can move with a wave of air.
– We can get infected from a person on the same bus, we don’t have to stand next to him. The record number of infected from one patient is 200 people. – warns the doctor.
It’s never too late
Compulsory vaccination against measles was introduced in Poland in 1975. A single dose of the vaccine was then administered. The second dose of the vaccine has been in force for 27 years, given at 8 years of age. In 2004, a combined vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella was introduced in two doses: at 13-15 months of age, then at 10 years of age. This procedure is still in place today.
What about people born before mandatory vaccination times? The National Institute of Hygiene reminds that they grew up and lived at a time when measles was registered every year from 70 to 000 cases of measles. Hence, most people contracted it, which resulted in acquiring immunity to the virus of this disease. On the other hand, people who do not remember whether they were vaccinated against measles, had measles, or do not have adequate vaccination documentation – can and should get vaccinated.
comp. based on: Państwowy Zakład Higieny, PZH Department of Epidemiology, PAP, MedExpress