Super Bowl Medical Scare? Person Infected With Measles Mingled In Indianapolis Crowds

Once again, we get a reminder of why it is so important to get vaccinations. Today, we learn that health authorities in Indiana have discovered that someone infected with measles was in the crowds in Indanapolis for the Super Bowl festivities and that people who traveled to the city for the Super Bowl may have come into contact with the person.

The Indiana Health Department says two cases of measles have been confirmed in the state. Health officials say one of those infected with the disease was in Indianapolis two days before the game and says visitors to Super Bowl village might have been exposed.

“One of the infected individuals visited the Super Bowl festivities in downtown Indianapolis on Friday, February 3, but health officials report the individual did not go into the NFL Experience at the Indiana Convention Center,” the health department says on its website. ”Since these events included visitors from other states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been notified. State health officials are also working with health officials in New York and Massachusetts.”

Measles is highly contagious. Symptoms begin with a fever and cough and then a rash develops, but most Americans are vaccinated for measles as children.

Measles Outbreak Hits Minnesota's Somali Community Hard

An ongoing measles outbreak in Minnesota highlights all that junk science has wrought and it again features the disreputable and lamentable Andrew Wakefield, whose report claiming an autism link with vaccines was disproven and repudiated by the Lancet and Wakefield's coauthors because Wakefield cooked the books.

Health officials struggling to contain a measles outbreak that's hit hard in Minneapolis' large Somali community are running into resistance from parents who fear the vaccine could give their children autism.

Fourteen confirmed measles cases have been reported in Minnesota since February. Half have been in Somali children, six of whom were not vaccinated and one who was not old enough for shots. State officials have linked all but one of the cases to an unvaccinated Somali infant who returned from a trip to Kenya in February. The state had reported zero or one case of measles a year for most of the past decade.

Amid the outbreak, a now-discredited British researcher who claimed there was a link between vaccines and autism has been meeting with local Somalis. Some worry Andrew Wakefield is stoking vaccination fears, but organizers say the meetings were merely a chance for parents to ask him questions.

"Unfortunately a lot of the media thinks he's saying 'Don't get vaccinated.' That's far from the truth. He's basically encouraging people to get vaccinated but do your homework and know the risks," said Wayne Rohde, a co-founder of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, which says parents should have other options for immunizing their children.

Measles has been all but eradicated in the United States, but accounts for about 200,000 annual deaths worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. None of those infected in Minnesota have died, though eight have required hospitalization.

The infections come as autism concerns have surged over an apparent rise in cases in Minnesota's Somali community, the largest in the U.S. Officials, though, haven't determined if that's really happening.

The outbreak began when an underage toddler who couldn't receive the vaccine became infected while visiting Somalia. That toddler became patient zero in the outbreak, as it spread among other children who were not vaccinated or who could not be vaccinated due to their age. This is a disease that was all but eradicated in the US except for the occasional case that was brought in just as this outbreak was.

It again highlights the junk science Wakefield peddled; kids should not be getting sick from diseases that are easily prevented by vaccination. Moreover, there's absolutely no way that Wakefield should be having anything to do with the practice of medicine or talking about vaccines. He's responsible for more misery and death and health care costs than one could possibly realize through his bogus claims.

Eight of the Minnesota kids have had to be hospitalized.

Study Linking Autism with MMR Vaccine Retracted

The English medical journal, the Lancet, is retracting its 1998 publication of a study which linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. (HT: Mrs. Legalbgl)

LONDON -- A major British medical journal on Tuesday retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease.

The retraction by The Lancet comes a day after a competing medical journal, BMJ, issued an embargoed commentary calling for The Lancet to formally retract the study. The commentary was to have been published on Wednesday.

The BMJ commentary said once the study by British surgeon and medical researcher Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues appeared in 1998 in The Lancet, "the arguments were considered by many to be proven and the ghastly social drama of the demon vaccine took on a life of its own."

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Ten of Wakefield's 13 co-authors renounced the study's conclusions several years ago and The Lancet has previously said it should never have published the research.

"We fully retract this paper from the published record," Lancet editors said in a statement Tuesday.

Last week, Britain's General Medical Council ruled that Wakefield had shown a "callous disregard" for the children used in his study and acted unethically. Wakefield and the two colleagues who have not renounced the study face being stripped of their right to practice medicine in Britain.

This does not come as a great shock to many in the medical field. Approximately 25 studies have been published disputing the link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Personally, I know several parents of young children who either refuse to give the MMR vaccine, or who want to give it later than the CDC recommends, i.e., first dose at 12-18 months, second dose at 4-6 years. However, this places additional risks on the child. Recently, 11 cases of measles were reported in Queens, and previously, 26 cases in New York City in 2008 were reported. Also, in October, a mumps outbreak was reported in both Brooklyn and Lakewood, NJ. If parents fail to vaccinate their children they risk exposing them to these serious diseases, as well as exposing children to young to receive the vaccine, something that has potential for deadly consequences.

UPDATE: From CNN

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention praised The Lancet's retraction, saying, "It builds on the overwhelming body of research by the world's leading scientists that concludes there is no link between MMR vaccine and autism. We want to remind parents that vaccines are very safe and effective and they save lives. Parents who have questions about the safety of vaccines should talk to their pediatrician or their child's health care provider."

Since its publication, Wakefield's study has attracted many critics who argued that the work had been so flawed it should not be regarded as scientific.

Wakefield theorized that the measles vaccine caused gastrointestinal problems and that those GI problems led to autism. In his view, the virus used in the vaccine grew in the intestinal tract, leading the bowel to become porous because of inflammation. Then material seeped from the bowel into the blood, Wakefield's theory said, affecting the nervous system and causing autism.

But subsequent research has been unable to duplicate Wakefield's findings.

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.