Outbreaks
More than 150 unvaccinated schoolchildren are being quarantined for 21 days in South Carolina after being exposed to measles, state officials said. Because the students who were exposed did not have immunisations, they were forced to miss school during the period of potential disease transmission.
South Carolina is the latest US state to experience a measles surge this year after outbreaks in New Mexico and Texas where hundreds were infected and three people died.
Great news, right? It was boring having immunization take measles out of the picture, doncha think? Life is better with a little excitement and risk. Provided it’s those other kids over there.
So far this year the US has confirmed 1,563 cases, the highest level nationwide in more than 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Thanks, Bob! You’re making us all proud!
The South Carolina Department of Public Health reported its eighth confirmed measles case in two weeks on Thursday, in Greenville County, in the northern part of the state.
“What this case tells us is that there is active, unrecognized community transmission of measles occurring in the Upstate, which makes it vital to ensure that the public have received their measles vaccinations,” a department release said.
The MMR vaccine is the most effective way to fight off measles, which can lead to pneumonia, brain swelling and death. The jabs are 97% effective and also immunise against mumps and rubella.
In addition to the outbreak in South Carolina, cases are on the rise in Utah and Arizona, where 55 and 63 cases have been reported, respectively.
Rock-solid Republican states all of them.
However the Beeb notes that there are even worse outbreaks in Canada, so it may not be all the fault of the Kennedy school of malpractice.
Further north, large numbers of measles have been reported across Canada, particularly in the provinces of Alberta and Ontario.
The country has logged 5024 cases, the government said, more than three times the number in the US, despite Canada’s far smaller population. The data has raised questions about why its spreading so quickly there and whether Canadian authorities are doing enough to contain it.
Be careful out there.
Arizona isn’t that Republican. It has a Democratic governor and two Democratic US senators.
Great. I’m supposed to go to South Carolina on Thursday. I guess it’s a good thing my mother was never an anti-vaxxer. Though I got my immunity the old fashioned way…I had the measles when I was younger. But if the MMR had been available, she would have gotten it for us. She believed in vaccines.
The Arizona outbreak is in the far northwestern part of the state that’s isolated by the Grand Canyon and is centered on the fundamentalist Mormon population there.
Ah, interesting.
Worth noting for the pro-natalists (which is to say anti-vaxx is incompatible with): mumps can often cause infertility and rubella causes birth defects.