My take on the Measles outbreak

I have a baby girl in the hospital who has never seen her mom or dad's face. She has never been kissed by her parents. She has yet to meet her big brother and sister. She is perfectly healthy right now......but who knows how long that will last. She is an unfortunate victim of the recent Measles outbreak in my community.

Her mom decided to take her 18 month old big sister to an urgent care with a bad diaper rash. She wanted to make sure the rash was treated before she went into labor....and she was due any day. The next day, she received a phone call from the hospital affiliated with the urgent care that informed her that she and her two children were exposed to Measles by another child who came in at the same time. She took her 3 year old and 18 month old to get a second measles booster...as recommended by the infectious disease expert....but with her due date just days away it was too late for her to get the vaccine again.

She was placed in isolation with a mask the minute she hit the door in labor. I have been in labor can only imagine the stress of contractions and delivery while wearing a face mask. No one has been allowed to visit her but her husband. Her children are not even allowed in the waiting room. No grandparents can visit and nurses have to follow strict isolation precautions to prevent the spread of the disease to other families.

Compound that with the fact that she isn't sure when or if the baby will get Measles. If mom gets the disease or one of the siblings....then the baby will likely get it as well and it could be life threatening in a newborn.

This is a family who believes in vaccines and has their children fully vaccinated, and rely on "herd immunity" to protect their precious baby girl.....but "herd immunity" has been weakened by families who choose not to vaccinate.

In our community, the first patient with Measles was a baby less than a year old who traveled with family out of the country. That child was exposed just days prior to flying home and broke out here. All 16 confirmed cases in the last few weeks have been linked back to contact with that  first baby. Although that child was vaccinated, he/she was too young to get a Measles vaccine. Subsequent cases have been in children who's parents decided not to vaccinate.

In my opinion, the parents who opted not to vaccinate are responsible for my patient having not met her siblings, and not seen her mommy and daddy's faces, or been kissed. Those anti-vaccine parents are responsible for the spread of disease to children who cannot be vaccinated due to age or other health issues. 1 in 1,000 children who get Measles die. Our grandparents knew this.

When vaccines were first invented and used, parents would line up and wait hours for the chance to get their child protected. They had seen first hand the risks of the diseases, the deaths, the disabilities. Everyone knew someone or some family that had lost a child to Measles, or Polio, or Chicken Pox. They had seen children with permanent hearing loss as a result of meningitis. They didn't want their child to suffer. They knew the odds....1 in 1 million are at risk from the vaccine...but 1 in 1,000 die from Measles. That was a risk they were willing to take. Parents who are choosing not to vaccinate now have never known anyone with the illnesses we vaccinate for...BECAUSE vaccines WORK! I have watched a healthy 8 year old girl die from Chicken Pox and countless children die from Meningitis.

There is a REASON pediatricians vaccinate our children and it sure the HELL isn't that we are brainwashed by the "vaccine companies". We have seen first hand the danger in these diseases and want to make sure our children are protected. Would I willing choose to give my own precious baby something that would likely harm them....absolutely not! Are there children who have had an adverse issue with a vaccine...yes...but it is a very small number when compared to the people who had devastating adverse issues with the disease itself. I agree with my grandma. It's a risk I am willing to take! I'll stand in line if I have to....I want my child protected!

For more information on Measles....see the link below.
http://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/overview.html
http://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/photos.html


If you are planning to travel outside the country....see this link.
http://www.cdc.gov/measles/travelers.html

What to do if you are exposed to Measles.
http://www.cdc.gov/measles/hcp/index.html