In the first 79 days of 2019, 268 cases of measles were reported in the U.S.
In 2000 measles were considered eliminated in the U.S., but the highly contagious disease has reemerged in recent years due to a small minority of parents’ refusal to vaccinate their children.
Cases in the first three months of 2019 already exceed the total number of cases in 2018.
Prior to showing symptoms, an infected person will pass measles to 90 percent of the unvaccinated and vulnerable people they come in contact with.
Vaccines protect everyone, even those vulnerable populations who are unable to receive vaccines, such as older adults, babies too young to vaccinate and people with weakened immune systems.
Protection from measles is included in the two recommended doses of MMR vaccine. This vaccine is safe and highly effective in preventing disease.
As a community, we can protect our children, grandchildren, and medically fragile individuals from measles. Encourage parents to talk to their pediatrician or family doctor if they have concerns.
If you know someone with a child lacking access to medical care, the Dallas County Health Department can help you set up care with a primary physician. Please call 515-993-3750 or email phn@dallascountyiowa.gov.
Vanessa Andrews is a student of public health at the University of Iowa and is currently completing a practicum at the Dallas County Health Department.
The level of ignorance displayed by the anti-vaxxers and others on social media sites is appalling. It’s Iluminiti this and Iluminiti that, Agenda 21 conspiracies, all those thousands of Chinese-manufactured guillotines ready to go for use at FEMA camps, all manner of prepper nonsense, the return of the cannibalistic Nephalim who appear disguised as space aliens and on and on and on. Never is there so much as one scintilla of evidence proffered, yet the same people tend to think climate change as a result of fossil fuels is a liberal conspiracy as well as Darwinism and any branch of the physical sciences that contradicts their belief system. This happens to be my conspiracy theory. I’m thinking all those people never got over getting Fs and Ds in their high school science exams and still resent those of us who got good marks. I would suggest we’d all be better off if they’d have just studied harder.