U.S. Measles Outbreak Sees Cases At 15-Year High: What Should You Do?

Health officials say 118 cases of measles have been reported in the United States so far this year -- the highest number this early in the year since 1996. (The U.S. normally sees just 50 cases of measles in a year.)

The numbers in the UK are even more startling, with 330 measles cases reported in the first three months of this year -- nearly as many as all of last year, The Guardian reports:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released the count for January 1 through May 20. Measles cases were seen in 23 states. None of the patients died, but about 40 percent were hospitalized.

What is measles?

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory infection, and up to 90 percent of people exposed to an infected person get sick. Symptoms include:

Fever and runny nose
Coughing and sneezing
Watery, red eyes
Rash of small flat spots

How is measles transmitted?

Similar to the common cold, sneezing and coughing release contaminated droplets that spread easily through the air. Unfortunately, the most contagious period of the disease occurs before the rash breaks out, so the risk of spreading the infection is very high, Leigh Vincour, M.D., spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians, told The Huffington Post.

What can you do to protect yourself?

The widely accepted method of protection against measles is vaccination. About 90 percent of this year's U.S. measles cases were unvaccinated, the CDC reports. Health professionals encourage children to get the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine starting at an early age. According to the Mayo Clinic, "By 2000, the measles vaccine had practically eliminated measles in the United States. But there has been a recent resurgence of the disease, as more people have chosen not to vaccinate their children."

Why are people opting out of vaccination? From the National Institute of Health (NIH):

Some parents do not let their children get vaccinated because of unfounded fears that the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella, can cause autism. Large studies of thousands of children have found no connection between this vaccine and autism. Not vaccinating children can lead to outbreaks of a measles, mumps, and rubella -- all of which are potentially serious diseases of childhood.

In April, Europe -- particularly France -- saw a major measles outbreak that health experts attribute to unvaccinated children. The World Health Organization reported nearly 5,000 cases between January and March.

Who is at risk?

According to the CDC, children too young to be vaccinated (generally, under a year old) and adults who skip the vaccine either by choice or due to medical conditions making immunization impossible, have the highest risk of developing the disease.

In addition to lack of immunization, risk factors include having a diet deficient in vitamin A, and international travel to and from developing countries where measles is more common.

An American traveler with measles caused a scare in February when her trip back from London potentially exposed travelers and workers in four major U.S. airports to the infection.

WATCH:

Comments

[mikomido]

09:32 PM on 05/29/2011

None of the 118 died btw. Fear mongering at it's best. I truly don't trust the CDC. They were scaring people to get the swine flu vaccine. I wonder what they'll do next.

I disagree with injecting anyone with formaldehyde and aluminum. My gut tells me it's just not right or natural.

[Josephius]

11:23 AM on 05/30/2011

I see. It only matters when there are deaths. Forget about hospitalizations or disability. As long as they are still alive then letting children contract preventable diseases is ok.

BTW YOU make formaldehyde...every day (it's a natural by-product of metabolism). Aluminum salts are not the same thing as aluminum. The microgram quantities in some vaccines is excreted within a day. I guess I just don't understand why you would think infection by parasites that take over your cells and destroy them is ok.

[mikomido]

02:17 PM on 05/30/2011

I know formaldehyde is a natural by-product of metabolism. But injecting synthetic form of formaldehyde is not natural and toxic. Vaccines can also cause disabilities... long term as well and can trigger auto-immune responses.

If you are comfortable with vaccinating yourself and your family... feel free to do so. No one is stopping you or criticizing you. But please respect others ppl's decisions. They have every right to decide what they want or do not want for themselves and for their bodies.

Our immune systems (most of us) are equipped to handle viruses and bacteria (we're exposed everyday). I for one will not be compromising it with vaccines.

[Alex007]

07:01 AM on 06/01/2011

Current Medicinal Chemistry, 2011, 18, 2630-2637


Aluminum Vaccine Adjuvants: Are they Safe?
L. Tomljenovic and C.A. Shaw

http://vaccinexchange.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/tomljenovic_shaw-cmc-published2.pdf

"Experimental research, however, clearly shows that aluminum adjuvants have a potential to induce serious immunological disorders in humans. In particular, aluminum in adjuvant form carries a risk for autoimmunity, long-term brain inflammation and associated neurological complications and may thus have profound and widespread adverse health consequences. In our opinion, the possibility that vaccine benefits may have been overrated and the risk of potential adverse effects underestimated, has not been rigorously evaluated in the medical and scientific community."”

[mujer-lg]

03:10 PM on 05/29/2011

Interesting that autism rates stay pretty steady but measles cases are rising.

[Taximom5]

08:35 PM on 06/05/2011

What makes you think that autism rates have stayed steady? Every report I have seen says that autism rates are still INCREASING. Some increase has been attributed to the change in diagnostic criteria in DSM-IV, but that was 17 years ago. There should not have been any increase in the last 10 years or so, if that was the only factor, but there has been enormous increase in the last 10 years--and there have been many more vaccines added to the schedule in the last 10 years, including thimerosal-preserved flu shots given both to infants and to women in all stages of pregnancy.

[Josephius]

03:50 PM on 05/27/2011

And...

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v473/n7348/full/473443a.html

[Josephius]

03:47 PM on 05/27/2011

A nice read...

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110525/full/473436a.html

[Dyson]

09:12 AM on 05/28/2011

Indeed, I wonder why those who supposedly are on Huffpo purely to "promote vaccine safety" have nothing to say about it.

[John Richard Smith]

08:54 PM on 05/28/2011

I was wondering where I could find the clinical safety data and other electronic communications in regards to the MMR and H1N1 vaccines ?

I was also wondering where I could find the follow up investigations of children who have a Severe Adverse Event to a vaccine as reported on the VAERS.

I was also wondering where I might find the risk / benefit data of a child who undertakes the full regime of vaccination and the odds calculated for an adverse event ?

Can you also remind me of the medical training and diagnostic skills of those people (Health Care Professionals) who give vaccines to children and to what extent they are able to make those decisions based on medical records and patient histories ?

[Alex007]

07:52 PM on 05/29/2011

One could ask why it was necessary for John Salamone and other parents of children with vaccine-caused paralytic polio, and vaccine-paralyzed adults too, to campaign for years to get the US to shift to the safer injectable version.

[Josephius]

03:45 PM on 05/27/2011

Update:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6020a7.htm

[Alex007]

10:01 PM on 05/27/2011

Yes. Note that 45% of patients were 20 years and older, and that in the UK epidemic of 2008 40% of patients were over 12, and 20% were 18 and over.

http://www.hpa.org.uk/NewsCentre/NationalPressReleases/2009PressReleases/090206Agencypublishesannualmeaslesfiguresfor2008/

How many of these people counted as unvaccinated can't produce evidence that they've actually been vaccinated, and how many received the single measles vaccine which promised to protect them for life?

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/VCBBCQ

[Josephius]

10:51 PM on 05/27/2011

The vaccine is highly effective. they should have had at least 2 inoculations itheir life time, not the single vaccine. Not producing record doesn't make someone unvaccinated...it makes them 'undetermined'.

You should look at the differences between those who are unvaccinated and those who are under vaccinated in those age groups as far as intensity and duration of the disease. then, compare those who have been fully immunized as a child and caught measles as an adult. ( you really should be doing this before making any innuendoes).

[Dyson]

09:06 AM on 05/28/2011

And what is the relevance of some people being adults?

[JonGH]

01:54 PM on 05/27/2011

“Children are not little adults. Their organ systems, particularly the nervous system, are forming and are thus more susceptible to the effects of chemicals.”

“The development of the human brain and the CNS begins in utero and continues through adolescence, following a precise and delicate step-by-step sequence involving complex neurobiological processes including the formation of the neural tube, cell proliferation, differentiation, migration and selection, synapse formation, development of neurochemical systems, cell pruning; and myelination.”

“The long and complex development of the brain and nervous system leaves it susceptible to the adverse effects of chemical exposures. Even minor changes in the structure or function of the nervous system can have profound consequences for neurological, behavioral and related body functions.”

-“Scientific Consensus Statement on Environmental Agents Associated with Neurodevelopmental Disorders.” February 20, 2008.

www.fluoridealert.org/scientific.consensus.nov.2007.pdf

[JonGH]

02:09 PM on 05/27/2011

This preceding Scientif­ic Consensus Statement on "Environmen­tal Agents Associated with Neurodevel­opmental Disorders” was authored by some of the most well-known medical scientists in the United States who investigate Children’s Environmental Health, including...

*Philippe Grandjean MD, PHD.
Adjunct Professor of Environmental Health, Harvard University School of Public Health. Professor and Chair of Environmental Medicine, University of Southern Denmark.

*Philip J. Landrigan MD, MSc.
Ethel Wise Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Preventive Medicine; Director, Children’s Environmental Health Center; Mount Sinai School of Medicine; NY, NY.

*Bruce P. Lanpear MD, MPH.
Professor of Pediatrics, Sloan Professor of Children's Environmental Health, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

*Isaac N. Pessah PhD.
Professor of Toxicology, Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of California at Davis. Director, Children’s Center for Environmental Health and Disease Prevention, University of California MIND Institute.

[Josephius]

02:25 PM on 05/27/2011

All are reputable researchers. All are making substantial contributions to what we know about neurobiology, as well as aspects of higher-level brain functions.

[Josephius]

02:21 PM on 05/27/2011

All statements are right on the money.

How they are used (out of context) by the "fluoridealert" group is another story.

[JonGH]

02:28 PM on 05/27/2011

Yea, sorry about the flouridealert link. The original link [http://www.iceh.org/pdfs/LDDI/LDDIStatement.pdf] doesn't work anymore.

[JonGH]

01:49 PM on 05/27/2011

"The developing human brain is understood today to be exquisitely susceptible to injury caused by toxic chemicals in the environment."

-Philip J. Landrigan MD, MSc.

[Josephius]

02:28 PM on 05/27/2011

Yes, he's a big-timer on environment and autism.

Check out this one review he published.

http://journals.lww.com/co-pediatrics/Abstract/2010/04000/What_causes_autism__Exploring_the_environmental.17.aspx

[JonGH]

02:33 PM on 05/27/2011

Yes, I've read it. In fact, I cited it below. And, I cited it a few times about 6 months ago.

Do you disagree with Professor Landrigan's statement that, "The developing human brain is understood today to be exquisitel­y susceptibl­e to injury caused by toxic chemicals in the environmen­t."?

[JonGH]

01:11 PM on 05/27/2011

“What’s getting into our children?”
WebMD
by Philip J. Landrigan MD.
August 13, 2009

http://blogs.webmd.com/health-ehome/2009/08/whats-getting-into-our-children.html

Please pay attention to the emerging specialty in medicine called Children's Environmental Health. It's going to be an essential field of Medicine in the 21st century.

[JonGH]

01:17 PM on 05/27/2011

Grandjean P, Landrigan PJ. “Developmental Neurotoxicity of industrial chemicals: A silent pandemic.” Lancet 2006; 368(9553): 2167-2178.

Landrigan PJ. “What causes autism? Exploring the environmental contribution.” Curr Opin Pediatr 2010; 22(2): 219-225.

Fleisch A, Sheffield P, Chinn C, Edelstein B, Landrigan PJ. “Bisphenol A and Related Compounds in Dental Materials.” Pediatrics 2010.

Landrigan PJ, Trasande L, Thorpe LE. “The National Children's Study: A 21-year prospective study of 100,000 American children.” Pediatrics 2006; 118(5): 2173-2186.
http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/118/5/2173

[JonGH]

01:29 PM on 05/27/2011

For those who do not know who Philip Landrigan is…

Philip J. Landrigan MD, MSc, is an epidemiologist, scientist, and professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY, NY. Dr. Landrigan is **world famous** for his pioneering work in the field of Children’s Environmental Health.

Dr. Landrigan graduated from Harvard School of Medicine in 1967; completed his residency in pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston; and earned his Master of Science degree in Occupational Medicine from the famous London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1977. He served for 15 years as an epidemic intelligence service officer and medical epidemiologist at the CDC. Dr. Landrigan has published more than 500 scientific papers, served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and Editor of Environmental Research, and has chaired committees at the National Academy of Sciences on Environmental Neurotoxicology. Dr. Landrigan was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine in 1987.

http://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/philip-j-landrigan
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)61015-X/fulltext

[JonGH]

01:33 PM on 05/27/2011

Dr. Landrigan’s ***landmark studies*** in the early 1970s of children exposed to lead were among the first to show that lead can cause brain damage to children at levels too low to cause clinically evident signs and symptoms – a phenomenon now termed “subclinical toxicity.” This work was critical in persuading the EPA to remove lead from gasoline and paint, actions that resulted in a 95% decline in lead poisoning in US children.

Arguably as important, Dr. Landrigan has been a leader in developing and implementing the landmark NIH/NIEHS/EPA National Children’s Study (NCS), a 21-year prospective study of 100,000 American children, the largest study of children's health and the environment ever launched in the United States.

http://www.mssm.edu/research/centers/national-childrens-study-queens-vanguard-center
http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/Pages/default.aspx

Landrigan has received the Children's Environmental Health Champion Award from the US-EPA in 2006 and the Stephen Smith Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Public Health from the New York Academy of Medicine in 2009.

[JonGH]

12:50 PM on 05/27/2011

“Autism Unmasked”

Columbia Magazine
(Columbia University, NYC)
By David J. Craig
Summer 2010

“Today, one of the most ambitious efforts to describe the physiological basis of autism is taking place at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. There, W. Ian Lipkin, MD (Professor of Epidemiology) and Mady Hornig MD, MA (Associate Professor of Epidemiology) are studying how environmental factors — everything from pollutants to viral infections to certain foods — can disrupt neurological development in ways that lead to autism. But if autism is hardwired into a person’s DNA, can chemicals really be that important? Lipkin says they play a pivotal role. “Genes go a long way in determining how susceptible a person is to autism,” he says, “but you may still need that final straw to trigger the illness.”

http://magazine.columbia.edu/features/summer-2010/autism-unmasked?page=0,4

1/2

[JonGH]

12:56 PM on 05/27/2011

2/2

“Autism Unmasked”
Columbia Magazine
Summer 2010

“Unfortunately for public health efforts, it’s nearly impossible to determine the most dangerous risk factors for a population as a whole, says Lipkin. That’s because chemicals affect individuals differently. “Some scientists today say they’re going to find -the- environmental cause for autism,” he says. “That’s way too simplistic.” Lipkin suspects that certain at-risk children may develop autism from exposure to, say, ordinary levels of heavy metals, while others may become ill from using plastic containers; still other autistic children, he says, may become sick from an unlucky combination of factors, such as if a child is conceived by parents in their 40s, suffers from a prenatal infection, and then gets exposed to pollutants shortly after birth.”

“There’s no one type of autism, just as there’s no one type of cancer,” says Lipkin. “And as we learn how different types of autism work, we’ll figure out ways to help subgroups of these children, one by one.”

http://magazine.columbia.edu/features/summer-2010/autism-unmasked?page=0,3

[JonGH]

01:16 PM on 05/27/2011

W. Ian Lipkin, MD is the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, and Professor of Neurology and Pathology, and Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, NY, NY.
http://cii.columbia.edu/team/lipkin.html
http://www.mailman.columbia.edu/our-faculty/profile?uni=wil2001

Lipkin is also Principal Investigator of the Autism Birth Cohort (ABC) study, an enormous collaborative international public health study that aims to discover the causes of many common illnesses, including autism, by tracking the health of some 110,000 children in Norway.
http://abc.columbia.edu/Home.html

[JonGH]

11:58 AM on 05/27/2011

“Do Toxins Cause Autism?”

NY Times.
February 24, 2010
By Nicholas D. Kristof

“[Autism and other developmental disorders] constitute a huge national health burden, and suspicions are growing that one culprit may be chemicals in the environment. An article in a forthcoming issue of a peer-reviewed medical journal, Current Opinion in Pediatrics, makes this explicit.

The article* [states] that the ‘likelihood is high’ that many chemicals ‘have potential to cause injury to the developing brain and to produce neurodevelopmental disorders.’

The article cites “historically important, proof-of-concept studies that specifically link autism to environmental exposures experienced prenatally.” It adds that the “likelihood is high” that many chemicals “have potential to cause injury to the developing brain and to produce neurodevelopmental disorders.”

The author is not a granola-munching crank but Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, professor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and chairman of the school’s department of preventive medicine. While his article is full of cautionary language, Dr. Landrigan told me that he is increasingly confident that autism and other ailments are, in part, the result of the impact of environmental chemicals on the brain as it is being formed."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/opinion/25kristof.html

1/2

[JonGH]

12:01 PM on 05/27/2011

“The crux of this is brain development,” Dr. Landrigan said. “If babies are exposed in the womb or shortly after birth to chemicals that interfere with brain development, the consequences last a lifetime.”

Concern about toxins in the environment used to be a fringe view. But alarm has moved into the medical mainstream.”

-NY Times.
February 24, 2010
By Nicholas D. Kristof
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/opinion/25kristof.html

*Landrigan PJ. “What causes autism? Exploring the environmental contribution.” Current Opinion in Pediatrics. April 2010; 22(2): 219-225.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20087185

[Josephius]

10:32 AM on 05/27/2011

BOOM!

Want to know what is happening in developing brains that leads to autism?

Read. (Cable, Dyson, and I can help you with any big words you don't understand)

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10110.html

[Josephius]

10:49 AM on 05/27/2011

"Our system-level analysis of the ASD brain transcriptome demonstrates the existence of convergent molecular abnormalities in ASD for the first time, providing a molecular neuropathological basis for the disease, whose genetic, epigenetic, or environmental aetiologies can now be directly explored. The genome-wide analysis performed here significantly extends previous findings implicating synaptic dysfunction, as well as microglial and immune dysregulation in ASD6 by providing an unbiased systematic assessment of transcriptional alterations and their genetic basis. We show that the transcriptome changes observed in ASD brain converge with GWAS data in supporting the genetic basis of synaptic and neuronal signalling dysfunction in ASD, whereas immune changes have a less pronounced genetic component and thus are most likely either secondary phenomena or caused by environmental factors. Because immune molecules and cells such as microglia have a role in synaptic development and function26, we speculate that the observed immune upregulation may be related to abnormal ongoing plasticity in the ASD brain. The striking attenuation of gene expression differences observed here between frontal and temporal cortex in ASD is likely to represent a defect of developmental patterning and provides a strong rationale for further studies to assess the pervasiveness of transcriptional patterning abnormalities across the ASD brain. We also demonstrate for the first time alterations in differential splicing associated with A2BP1 levels in the ASD brain, and show that many of the affected exons belong to genes involved in synaptic function. [Con't]

[Josephius]

10:50 AM on 05/27/2011

[con't]

Finally, given current evidence of genetic overlap between ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders including schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the data provide a new pathway-based framework from which to assess the enrichment of genetic association signals in other allied psychiatric disorders."

[JonGH]

11:35 AM on 05/27/2011

Jos,

Yes, genetics play a profound role in the pathogenesis of autism. Genetics play a profound role in the pathogenesis of -all- disease.

But, there is more to the story. One's genes are not the only variable in the etiology of autism.

In an article published in the April 2007 edition of DISCOVER Magazine entitled “Autism: It’s Not Just in the Head,” Craig Newschaffer* PhD (Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA.) provides fascinating commentary on the complex interaction between genes and environmental impacts such as pollutants and other toxicants. The article also points out that several federally funded epidemiological studies are underway to pinpoint possible environmental triggers for autism. A fascinating article.

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/apr/autism-it2019s-not-just-in-the-head/article_view?b_start:int=0

[JonGH]

12:12 PM on 05/27/2011

*Craig Newschaffer earned his master’s degree in health policy from Harvard University and his PhD in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. He is the founder and former Director of Johns Hopkins’ Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Epidemiology (CADDE). Newschaffer is also a key regional Investigator for the NIH/NIEHS EARLI study (Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation) investigating a large cohort of mothers of children with autism at the start of subsequent pregnancies. This project is designed specifically to study pre-, peri- and neonatal autism risk factors and biomarkers.
http://publichealth.drexel.edu/Departments/Epidemiology_Biostatistics/Faculty_Staff/Faculty_Staff/Craig_J_Newschaffer_PhD/282/
http://www.earlistudy.org/

[Josephius]

07:19 PM on 05/26/2011

http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20110525/meningitis-rate-is-dropping-in-us

[Alex007]

09:54 AM on 05/27/2011

What is the relevance of this article? Meningitis is not measles.

[Josephius]

10:33 AM on 05/27/2011

I know. But there are posters that are denying that vaccines have led to the eradication or reduction of infectious diseases. Here is a modern example, clearly illustrated, that demonstrates otherwise.

[Dyson]

09:03 AM on 05/28/2011

A number of your antivax friends have top posted articles here about autism.
Why don't you have a go at them for being way off topic?

[Josephius]

02:12 PM on 05/26/2011

Many of us wonder why so many can be so scientifically illiterate or spout 'facts' that have been clearly debunked and erroneous.

This one is dedicated to you all doing your "research" on the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbi2i_Y7gSE

[Josephius]

12:55 PM on 05/26/2011

It must be the vaccines!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110525112109.htm

[cable1977]

01:14 PM on 05/26/2011

Here's the abstract:

http://journals.lww.com/epidem/Abstract/publishahead/Prenatal_Vitamins,_One_carbon_Metabolism_Gene.99561.aspx

[Alex007]

12:41 AM on 05/27/2011

Yet another 'blame the mother' study. How many women take prenatal vitamins three months before they get pregnant, or in the first month of pregnancy?

[sabelmouse]

07:49 AM on 05/27/2011

i'm answering here because no button.
those over the counter meds might do more harm in any case .reducing fever might well be the worsed thing you can do as the body is trying to fight and doesn't get a chance.
so the advice is always interfere with more pharmaceutical products. anything but suporting a body in actual healing.

[cable1977]

09:06 AM on 05/27/2011

Do you have some actual criticism of the methods used in the study to identify the risks involved? Or can you simply not wrap your cognitive dissonance around a result that goes against your beliefs?

[johnny8612]

11:53 AM on 05/26/2011

obama goes to these differ countries brings back a virus and some of you still love him or her.Body Gaurds cant stop a virus.

[Josephius]

04:08 PM on 05/26/2011

Good one.