Unvaccinated Child Dies of Measles in Texas Outbreak
www.nytimes.com
At least 124 cases have been reported since late January, mostly among children and teenagers who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.
  • @werefreeatlast
    3•4 hours ago

    See…easily preventable without vaccines! Lol, so very much not lol. Get vaccinated of you want people to stop flying over your state.

  • Chozo
    9•6 hours ago

    If only there was some way to have prevented this.

  • aramis87
    9•6 hours ago

    If you’re unsure of your vaccination status, and Americans born after 1957 and who got their vaccination before 1967, should consider getting a booster shot.

    Also, someone who was infectious spent eight hours touring college campuses, six hours in bars and restaurants, and three hours in crowded tourist attractions last weekend. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known: in a group with no immunity, every person will infect an average of 14 other people. I’m mentioning the campus visitor because they exposed an awful lot of people,a fairly high percentage of whom are likely college students.

    The bad news is that the rash that usually lets you know you have measles takes about 14 days to develope - and 14 days from the date of the campus visitor, at least one of the universities starts their spring break. Depending on who got infected and where they go for spring break, this could spread fairly quickly.

    • @[email protected]OP
      2•4 hours ago

      There’s another group of people who might need a booster:

      If you were vaccinated between 1968 and 1989, you likely received just one dose of the measles vaccine, instead of the two doses that are standard today. One dose alone is highly effective and for most people, it provides more than enough protection, says Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in New York City and author of Booster Shots, a book on the history of measles.

      But Ratner says there are several situations in which the CDC recommends an additional dose of measles vaccine for adults who are considered at high risk. That includes people who are in college settings, work in health care, live or are in close contact with immunocompromised people, or are traveling internationally.

      And if you live in a community that is experiencing a measles outbreak, your local or state health department may recommend a second dose for adults.

  • @[email protected]English
    14•9 hours ago

    So will it be a charge of like neglecting your child or some kind of involuntary manslaughter maybe? I mean, wasn’t this completely preventable?

  • @pageflightEnglish
    8•8 hours ago

    Quite the virus:

    Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known. The virus travels through the air and can linger in the airspace of a room for up to two hours after an infected person has been present. Among unvaccinated people exposed to the virus, 90 percent will become infected.

    In the US, about 20 percent of people with measles are typically hospitalized. Five percent develop pneumonia, and up to 3 in 1,000 die of the infection. Later in life, measles can also cause a fatal disease of the central nervous system called Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. And the virus can erase immune responses to other infections (a phenomenon known as immune amnesia), making people vulnerable to various illnesses.

    From Beth Mole at Ars.

  • @abcdqfr
    7•9 hours ago

    What a thumbnail. How far we’ve ~~come ~~ fallen