Measles Outbreaks In NYC and England Show Need For Vaccination

These are wholly preventable outbreaks of measles. 11 cases of measles has been reported in New York City, and all the children infected with the disease were not vaccinated against the disease. 9 children and two adults were infected.

According to a report issued by the department on Thursday, nine of the confirmed cases are in children ranging in age from 8 months to 4 years old. Two adults were also confirmed to have the illness. Most of the cases have had some form of close contact with others, and were either never vaccinated against measles or not fully vaccinated.

All of the cases were reported either in the Williamsburg or Borough Park sections of the borough.

The department wants providers to be aware of the recent upswing in cases and to contact the department should they suspect any patients might have the illness, which is very uncommon in New York City, despite an outbreak in 2008. Before then, there hadn't been a major outbreak of measles here since the 1990s.

New York isn't alone. The British health care system is dealing with an outbreak of 51 cases.

A measles outbreak in Brighton and Hove shows no signs of slowing, according to health bosses.

There have now been 51 confirmed cases of the virus in the city since the start of the year.

The results of several suspected cases are still outstanding and could push the number even higher.

Public health managers in the city say the virus is now out in the community and affecting adults as well as children.

The adults are generally parents of infected children.

One of the most recent cases involved an adult who had to be treated in hospital after falling seriously ill.

The virus tends to be more severe in adults and children under two More than 13 schools and numerous nurseries around the city have been affected by the outbreak and letters have been sent home to parents urging them to get their child vaccinated with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).

The situation is being blamed on the poor take up of MMR.

It stands at around 80% , well short of the 95% recommended by the World Health Organisations as needed to protect a community.

Wales has an outbreak of over 300 cases (and 38 have required hospitalization).

Junk science shoulders some of the blame, but so do people like Oprah Winfrey and Jenny McCarthy. Oprah has been touting McCarthy's efforts to stop taking vaccines because she thinks that vaccines are to blame for autism.

That's despite years of medical studies debunking links between autism and vaccines, thimerosol and yet more and more people are avoiding taking the vaccines that can prevent these communicable diseases. That allows diseases that were once rare to make a comeback, and have the potential to create outbreaks that can tax the medical systems.
It is the concerted efforts of uninformed people like Jenny McCarthy who are pushing junk science and debunked links between the MMR vaccine and autism that has brought vaccination rates to lows not seen in years.

These people don't realize the health care crisis that is just around the bend because they are urging people not to get vaccinated against wholly preventable diseases.