Friday, August 19, 2011

Hey Everyone Whooping Cough season is either back or it never left. Here is an article about a Newborn that died in Snohomish.


Newborn dies from whooping cough in Snohomish County

BY SCOTT SUNDE, SEATTLEPI.COM
Updated 08:28 a.m., Friday, August 19, 2011
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Health officials in Snohomish County say the death of a newborn who had whooping cough underscores to the need to get vaccinated and to provide a "cocoon" of immunity around the very young.
The death from whooping cough, or pertussis, occurred on Tuesday.
The county has had 52 confirmed cases of pertussis so far this year, compared with 25 in all of 2010.
Eight of this year's cases have involved children younger than 1.
"Our hearts go out to the family of this baby," said Dr. Gary Goldbaum, health officer and director of Snohomish Health District, said in a statement. "The tragic loss of this little one‟s life saddens us all."
"It's important to surround infants with a protective 'cocoon' of immunity because a newborn is too young to be vaccinated," Goldbaum said. ""If you or your children have been coughing for more than two weeks please call your health care provider and discuss whether you and your family should be seen and tested for whooping cough."
Infants and young children are the most at risk from the disease.
Authorities urge pregant woman to get vaccinated.
Whooping cough starts out like a cold, but gets worse and can last for months. The disease includes severe coughing fits or spasms followed by a whopping sound and vomiting.
You can listen to the sounds of whooping cough here.
The DTaP (diphtheria/tetanus/acellular pertussis) vaccine is administered at 2, 4, and 6 months, 12-18 months, plus 1 dose after age 4 years for a total of five doses. A Tdap (tetanus/diphtheria/acellular pertussis) shot for teens ages 11-18 years is routinely recommended. Adults age 19 and older should also be vaccinated with Tdap to supplement immunity that wanes over the years, health officials say.
 Pregnant women and adults who have contact with pregnant women or infants under 12 months of age are especially urged to get a single dose of the Tdap booster, health officials say. This includes parents, family members, child care workers, health care workers, and any others who haven't received this vaccine.
To learn more about pertussis, you can go here or here.
Scott Sunde can be reached at 206-448-8331 or scottsunde@seattlepi.com. Follow Scott on Twitter at twitter.com/scottsunde.


Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Newborn-dies-from-whopping-cough-in-Snohomish-2123405.php#ixzz1VUz7uRxW
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Sunday, May 29, 2011

An FYI

Measles Outbreak—How to Protect Yourself

By Lisa Collier Cool
May 27, 2011
Beware: 2011 is on track to be the worst year for measles cases in more than a decade. Although the Centers for Disease Control declared the highly infectious and potentially fatal disease “eliminated” from the US in the early 2000s, it continues to spread, with the highest number of cases this early in the year since 1996, the CDC reported this week.  Here’s the scoop on the outbreak and how to protect yourself and your family.
How extensive is the outbreak? In the first 19 weeks of this year, 118 cases in 23 states have been reported, compared to a median of 56 cases a year between 2001 and 2008, according to the CDC. That means that in just five months, there have been more than double the number of cases that normally occur in an entire year. 40 percent of patients required hospitalization, with babies and kids under age five the most severely affected. In Europe, there’s been a far larger outbreak, with 33 countries battling measles. France has been hit by an epidemic of nearly 10,000 cases in the first four months of 2011.
What’s behind the rise? 90% of the current cases were “imported” into the US by travelers who visited countries with measles outbreaks, then brought the infection home, sometimes spreading the virus to other people. Almost all of the cases were in people who hadn’t been vaccinated. Another factor in the outbreak is some parents’ unfounded worries about vaccination, due to the now thoroughly disproven belief that the vaccine might cause autism. Extensive research by the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the CDC have shown no link to autism.
How contagious is measles? Measles is extremely contagious and easily spread through the air. Up to 90 percent of unvaccinated people who are exposed to the measles virus fall ill.  People with the disease harbor the virus in the mucus of their nose and throat and spread it through airborne droplets when they cough, sneeze or talk. Not only can other people inhale the spray and get sick, but it can land on surfaces, where the virus remains contagious for several hours. Long after an infected person has left the area, you can catch the disease by touching contaminated objects and then rubbing your eyes, nose or mouth.
What are the symptoms?  10 to 12 days after exposure, people typically develop fever, coughing, runny nose, pinkeye, and sore throat. Two to three days later, white spots erupt in the mouth (Koplik’s spots, a well-known sign of the disease), followed by fever that can spike up to 105 degrees. A blotchy, mildly itchy red rash typically starts on the face and rapidly migrates downward. The disease is contagious four days before the telltale rash begins and remains contagious for four days after the rash vanishes.
How serious is measles? Up to 20 percent of measles patients suffer complications, ranging from ear infection to bronchitis, pneumonia, laryngitis, and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain that can lead to convulsions, coma or death). About one in 1,000 measles sufferers is stricken with this complication and one in 1,000 dies. Encephalitis can also cause long-term neurological problems and may strike soon after measles or years later. In pregnant women, measles can trigger miscarriage or preterm birth. Unlike German measles (rubella), regular measles isn’t linked to birth defects.
What is the best prevention? The CDC recommends vaccinating kids with the first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at 12 to 15 months of age, followed by a second dose at ages 4 to 6. The vaccine is more than 95 percent effective—and saves lives. Before it was available, 3 to 4 million Americans came down with measles annually, of whom 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized and 1,000 were chronically disabled from encephalitis. In countries where vaccine isn’t widely available, the disease killed 242,000 people, mainly kids, in 2006.
Do adults need vaccination? The CDC advises that adults get the MMR shot if they weren’t previously vaccinated with two doses and attend college, work in a medical facility, travel internationally or are women of childbearing age. You don’t need the shot if:
  • You were born before 1957
  • Blood tests show that you’re immune to measles, mumps and rubella
  • You already had two doses of the MMR vaccine or one dose of MMR plus a second dose of the measles vaccine; or you had one dose of MMR and are at low risk for measles exposure.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Measles outbreaks in the US start with people traveling abroad


06:58 PM ET
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WHO reports measles outbreaks in European countries

Airfares to Europe are quite enticing at the moment, but traveling to that continent could introduce you to more than just the sights. Many European countries are dealing with measles outbreaks according to information released by the World Health Organization on Wednesday.
At least 6,500 cases of measles have been reported in a dozen countries so far this year, nearly 5,000 of them in France alone. Most of the people who got the disease in France were not immunized with the measles vaccine, according to Dr. Rebecca Martin, who heads the Vaccine Preventable Diseases program for the WHO's European Region. "About 30% are seen in cases [in France] too young to receive vaccine." Martin says a substantial number of adolescents have also been infected and one adult died from the disease.
Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Serbia and Turkey have also reported cases of measles in 2011, according to the WHO. Bulgaria's measles cases seemed to have peaked, according to Martin. "We had a very large outbreak starting in April 2009 in Bulgaria through 2010 with over 24,000 cases and 24 deaths," she says.
British Health officials also continue to see cases of measles this year. 53 caseshave been confirmed in England and Wales, of which several have been traced back to travel to the continent.
"People don't think measles is a severe disease, but it is a severe disease, there are complications and death can occur," Martin tells CNN.
"We see many reasons why people aren't vaccinated, but the result is the same – people are getting the disease," she says.
In Bulgaria, many of the cases are among the ethnic Roma population, which often has limited or no access to regular health care services.  Belgium has recorded at least 100 cases so far in 2011 (it had only 40  in all of 2010) and many of the cases are traced back to anthroposophic communities near Ghent, which believe it's better to experience a disease than to get vaccinated, says Martin.
She says France's outbreak is probably attributable to a lack of vaccination due to the persistent notion that the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine is harmful.  "The vaccine is a safe vaccine," she says – adding that the disease is much more severe than any possible side effects that might be caused by the vaccine.  "It does lead to death."
Dr. William Schaffner chairs the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.  He says these outbreaks are a tragedy because "measles is a really bad disease."   He tells his medical students at Vanderbilt that before there was a vaccine, 400 people would die each year in the United States from measles.
Schaffner, who is also the president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, says even the remote areas in the Amazon have well-functioning immunization programs, which have contributed to measles being eliminated from the Western Hemisphere.   
"The only measles we have in the Western Hemisphere is imported," says Schaffner and he faults the Europeans for being "behind some of the developing countries in their commitment to measles elimination."
If one country has an outbreak, measles can easily be transferred to another country by travelers.  Martin says that the big outbreak in Bulgaria started with a case that came from Germany to Bulgaria.
Another example on the WHO website describes how a 9-month old child in the U.S. contracted measles in the Dominican Republic, most likely due to the exposure to an adult from Europe.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one out of 1,000 children with measles get inflammation of the brain, and one or two out of 1,000 who contract the disease will die.
Martin urges people to get vaccinated and get vaccinated on time according to the vaccine schedules of the country you live in.  In the U.S., the CDC is urging parents to make sure their children are vaccinated before traveling abroad.
A child gets his or her first MMR shot between 12 and 15 months of age and then another shot at about age 4.
But if you are traveling overseas with a  6- to 11-month-old baby, the CDC is now recommending these infants should get one MMR shot to get some protection.  Schaffner  calls this the "travel dose," but adds that this does not replace the regularly scheduled measles vaccinations – this child would still need an MMR shot between 12-15 months and before the child enters pre-school, around the age of 4.

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