One of the most memorable events of my pediatric rotation as a medical student was a baby born to a mother who contracted measles during her pregnancy.
The baby's brain was full of black dead tissue where the virus attacked and destroyed cells. The baby was born dead. It had quite an impact on physicians and students.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa, I witnessed measles go through a poorly vaccinated population. Ten percent of the children died. The deaths were not pretty.
Indeed, well-nourished, healthy Americans can usually mount an effective defense against the virus. Yet vaccinations are much preferable.
I remember as a child being taken to play with neighbor children with measles so we could get the disease and be immune in the future.
Here is a report from ProPublica:
"The U.S. recently reached a grim milestone: As of July 23, more measles cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention than in any year since 1991. It took less than seven months to blow past the three-decade high recorded last year.
This potentially deadly disease is easily prevented. Shots are widely available and, in many cases, free. Still, since the beginning of last year, more than 4,850 people here have been infected, and three have died. Among them were two unvaccinated girls in West Texas whose deaths made national headlines.
It may feel like the continuous stream of cases is just the way things are now. But it is dangerous to shrug off the resurgence of measles. In a story I reported earlier this year, I showed what’s happened in parts of the world that have let their guard down to vaccine-preventable diseases. My reporting found that long-forgotten scourges roared back, killing and disabling children. Even countries that made what seemed like subtle changes to immunization policies suffered disastrous consequences years later."
In Africa, the CDC is honored as a hero for abolishing diseases we have rarely heard of: yaws (terrible ulcers of the ankles) is one I remember. There is a statue to the CDC physician who developed the vaccination.
It is disheartening to see this country move away from solid, academically sound information and practices toward opinions from internet speakers who are opinionated but ill-informed. Often, experts speak quietly, humbly, and with caution, knowing that scientific evidence is not perfect, but is just the best we have.
-Chuck