A limited outbreak of measles in Texas has received nearly daily media attention, with 200 cases confirmed as of March 10 and one child and one adult having died with the disease.
Alarm grew after a case not associated with the Texas outbreak was confirmed in Maryland. The patient had recently traveled internationally through Washington Dulles International Airport on March 5 and later went to a pediatric emergency department for treatment. The Maryland Department of Health issued an alert, warning residents that symptoms can appear seven to 21 days after exposure.
Vaccine, Vitamin A Recommended
Measles is extremely contagious and can cause brain damage, prompting newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to make the outbreak a top priority (see related article, page 17). Kennedy supplied Texas with 2,000 doses of the mumps, measles, rubella (MMR) vaccine, stating the decision to get the shot is a “personal one.”
Kennedy suggested another treatment as well.
“[The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has recently updated their recommendation supporting administration of vitamin A under the supervision of a physician for those with mild, moderate, and severe infection,” Kennedy wrote in an op-ed on Fox News on March 2. “Studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality.”
Media Push Political View
Media speculated vaccine hesitation was behind the outbreak. The MMR vaccine has long been under attack for a possible link to autism.
It is important to keep the recent outbreak in perspective, says Jane Orient, M.D., executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
“The first measles vaccine was licensed in 1963,” Orient wrote in an email newsletter. “Vaccine coverage rates were around 50-60 percent in the 1970s. But despite more than 90 percent coverage now, measles has not been eradicated, nor can it be.
“The vaccine is not perfect,” Orient wrote. “Children can still get infected and transmit disease, especially if they get ‘atypical measles,’ which is not recognized. Vaccinated persons may be carrying infectious virus in their secretions even if they don’t get sick. Persons who recently received MMR (a live virus vaccine) may be contagious.
Cases, Deaths ‘Have Plummeted’
Orient also points out “immunity, whether from vaccine or natural wanes with time.”
The age distribution of measles has creeped upwards, with more infections occurring in older children and adults who are more seriously affected than children, notes Orient, referencing a Fall 2019 article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
“Both the case rate and death rate have plummeted since 1960, and death rates have been sharply decreasing since 1920,” wrote Orient. “Improvements in sanitation and nutrition eliminated about 98 percent of measles deaths before 1960.”
People can reduce their susceptibility to infectious diseases by keeping their immune systems in top shape with “good food, exercise, sunlight, and adequate levels of vitamins A, C, and D,” Orient writes.
AnneMarie Schieber (amschieber @heartland.org) is the managing editor of Health Care News.
AnneMarie Schieber is a research fellow at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Health Care News, Heartland’s monthly newspaper for health care reform.
