Measles in Hennepin County.

[porphyrin]

There are now 9 confirmed cases of measles in Hennepin County.

The Department of Health recommends strongly that children who have only had one dose of measles immunization get their second dose BEFORE the age of 4 for protection.

Please consider doing this for your child's sake. Measles kills 1 out of every 100 people and is one of the most contagious diseases extant in the world today, spreading via airborne, not droplet, transmission. If you are in a waiting room with someone with measles, then you have been exposed. Period. The end.

No comments about immunizations being evil, please. I'm tired, I'm looking at a potential outbreak, and anyone who does so will get deleted from my friendslist.

Comments

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

May I cut and paste a large chunk of this to my blogs? Would you prefer credit or no if I do?

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

My dear,

Post it all over the internet. Please.

I don't care about credit-- I just care that people are protected against this disease. No one has died yet, but 5 of the children were hospitalized because they were so sick.

[naomikritzer]

I have some friends (who live in South Minneapolis) whose child was diagnosed with cancer last month and is having chemo right now (it's an insanely rare form of cancer, almost never found in children.) (Actually, technically he is between rounds of chemo.)

Here is my question. I am pretty sure his parents vaccinated him fully back before he got sick. Does the immune suppression of chemo make you vulnerable to things you SHOULD be immune to (like measles, if you were vaccinated) or just extra-vulnerable to things you are not immune to (like colds)? I am so, so worried about this child.

I really should just quit worrying about the measles killing him and worry about the fucking cancer. It kills 50% of the adults who get it. It's so rare in children they don't even know what his odds are. It's possible that fantasizing about doing violence to Andrew Wakefield is distracting me from worrying about this kid dying of cancer...

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Your friends should call their oncologist and ask-- in general, until chemo is done for good, live vaccines aren't given. He's at risk because the chemo is beating up on his immune system.

Which means that the poor attendance last night at the Department of Health clinic is actually endangering this child.

I also sometimes fantasize about doing violence to Wakefield.

[schnoogle.livejournal.com]

There was a recent case in my area in a ~14 month old. That information's via Facebook, so I don't know how definite the diagnosis is, but I do know that NO ONE in the long comments thread mentioned vaccination. >_<

[one-undone.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the late comment.

You said the DoH recommends a second dose before age 4. What about kids older than 4 who have only had one dose? O_O Are they and/or adults who have only had one dose somehow more resistant to measles once past age 4, or is it simply too late for a second dose to work?

I guess what I'm asking is should I be making an appointment for the 4 of us to get boosters, or are we just screwed? :-\

ETA: I haven't checked our vaccination cards yet so I don't know if I should even be freaking out about this because at least some of us may have gotten 2 shots, but I'm thinking worst case scenario. I like to be prepared, you know. :)