Healthcare Right Now

US Measles Outbreak, Part 1

• Sue

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Sue:

Hello. Welcome to Healthcare right now, the podcast that's asking what the health is going on.

Sue:

Today I want to talk to you about the American Measles Outbreak. Should you be concerned, are you and your loved ones protected? Let's find out first.

Sue:

What is measles? And why should you even care? Why is this even in the news?

Sue:

If you look at the numbers, there are not that many sick kids, especially if you compare it to our most recent pandemic, COVID, where the numbers of people that were ill were in the thousands to millions of people infected. If you look at the CDC website, they are the agency that tracks measles in the United States and other infectious illness. This is a mandatory reportable disease, and you see that there are less than 1000 confirmed cases. Please note that there could be more cases. Those are just confirmed cases. People may have not sought any healthcare. And that would contribute to them not being a confirmed case, but there are confirmed cases that are less than 1000 people in 24 different states. Yet the news is talking about this every single day.

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What's the big deal? What the health is going on? Should you be concerned? Are you safe?

Sue:

The short answer is. Yes, you should be concerned about any outbreak of disease in the US because it could potentially affect you and your loved ones, but the degree of concern is very dependent on where you live and if your children are old enough to be vaccinated, if you are already vaccinated, and if that vaccine is still effective and can produce antibodies M M

Sue:

easles is a viral infection. It also used to go by the name Rubella, in reference to the redness of the rash. It has an incubation period of between seven to 14 days. That means that the virus is replicating and building up viral load in the body for seven to 14 days before the host becomes noticeably ill. The first symptoms develop at the 11 to 12 day mark, and symptoms can develop sooner for those exposed to a higher viral load.

Sue:

An infected person is the most contagious from about four days before the characteristic rash begins and four days after the rash begins. That puts the max contagious potential for each infected person between the seven to 15 day mark After exposure.

Sue:

An infected person can be contagious before any symptoms begin because of high replication rates in the human trachea, which spreads the disease quickly. Just through breathing. the virus replicates or makes copies of itself inside your windpipe. So every time an infected person breathes, or especially if they cough and project that out, those little infectious viral particles leave their body through the breathing and the cough and are projected into the air early S

Sue:

S ymptoms of measles include high fever, which could spike to over 104 degrees Fahrenheit Cough. A runny nose, medically called za and also red watery eyes, which is called conjunctivitis. Together, those three symptoms are called the three Cs of measles, so cough, za, and conjunctivitis.

Sue:

There's also a symptom called Koplic spots, which are bluish white dots that are on the inside of the patient's cheeks. Those develop pretty early on, but the three Cs do tend to come first along with that fever. After these signs appear, the patient develops a macular papular rash a few days later.

Sue:

Maculopapular is a fancy term that means some raised areas of redness along with some flat areas of redness. It usually starts somewhere on the head and then moves down the whole body. Many of the dots tend to join together and form large rash areas. Now, none of this sounds too bad. It sounds like a normal childhood illness, which is miserable, but tolerable. So if it's tolerable and just a normal illness, why do we even bother to vaccinate for it? This is an argument that I've been hearing in the public recently. We don't need to vaccinate for this, right? Vaccines might be hurting more than they're helping, right?

Sue:

Well. No, that's not right. So let's dig a little deeper. What are health experts concerns about measles?

Sue:

First, it turns out that measles is one of the most contagious viruses on the planet. This has to do with several factors. One, it's an airborne virus. The virus spreads. When someone who has contracted the virus, coughs, sneezes, or even just breathes the particles, are able to stay suspended in the air for two hours.

Sue:

Airborne illnesses are always more infectious than other illnesses simply because. We as humans all have to breathe, and when we do, we are going to breathe in the virus if someone near us has it. Luckily there are not too many true airborne illnesses. Measles just happens to be one of them. There is also evidence that it can land in the conjunctiva of the eye and cause illness purely from that contact.

Sue:

So for all my healthcare professional friends out there who have never had to deal with the measles, it sounds like in the hospital setting, this would have to be a severe respiratory precaution disease, including an N95 mask, negative pressure rooms and eye shields as protection

Sue:

How does that compare to other viruses? When you think about prevention of disease or containing a disease? Normal colds and flus are considered droplet precautions, meaning the particles cannot stay suspended for a very long time in the air before they drop to the ground. An infected person will cough. And the droplets fall to the ground within about a six to eight foot radius around that person. Hence the six foot distancing that we all became very familiar with during CVID.

Sue:

A regular mask is considered sufficient to reduce your intake of these particles when you're in the same room as someone who's infected. Please note that I said reduce your intake of these particles, not eliminate. I am aware that masks are not perfect, but they have been demonstrably effective in reducing viral uptake. It's a technique that I use in the hospital every day to reduce my viral load uptake when I, I'm working with infected patients. And it works as a reduction method.

Sue:

However, whether an organism becomes sick from a virus can be dependent on something called viral load or the amount of the organism that you're exposed to. There is literature that suggests broad application of the idea that for some viruses, the more viral load someone is exposed to, the harder their immune system is going to have to work right out of the gate, and the easier it is for that virus to overwhelm the patient.

Sue:

It's like a battle. If an enemy sends three people on an invasion mission, those three enemies will be easier for your defense army to thwart than an entire platoon of the enemy coming at you. That just makes sense. A mask can reduce your exposure and improve your immune system's chances of winning the fight. And for most respiratory illnesses, a normal surgical mask is fine.

Sue:

There is not a whole lot of evidence that homemade or cloth masks do a lot, but normal surgical masks do reduce your uptake now we're going back to airborne diseases, and you would need an N95 mask to prevent infection from airborne particles in the two hour window that those particles are suspended in whatever room you're in. And if the infected person is still in the room, they are likely going to continue to cough. So especially in a small space, there will be a lot of viral load in the air, creating high levels of exposure.

Sue:

So why else is measles? Highly contagious? Humans are highly susceptible it turns out we are, its only host, so it has decided to make the best of only being able to infect one species, and it does so beautifully. If there are 10 unvaccinated people in a room and that room has airborne particles in it, nine of those people are going to get infected.

Sue:

Measles has a very high. R 0 factor. This is a measure of how many people one person could infect. On average, every virus has a different R, not factor Influenza or the flu virus is on the lower side at 4.5, so every one person and infected with a flu virus could infect 4.5 'cause it's an average number with the flu. Measles is on the very high side at 18, so for every one measles, infected person, 18 new vulnerable people could become infected. So you can see how cases would add up quickly in a susceptible population.

Sue:

Another reason experts are concerned is that, as I mentioned earlier, a person infected with measles is highly infectious for about four days before their symptoms appear. So they are able to spread the disease to others before they even know that they're sick. And you might be thinking, okay, so it's incredibly infectious. Great. It's still just a normal childhood illness. Let's just have a measles party and get this thing over with. Well. Please, please, please do not do that. That is not the answer. Let's talk about why you don't wanna be the one to give your sweet little angel this illness

Sue:

first. It causes suffering and discomfort to your child, and it comes with very high fevers up to 104 degrees, and I don't know the last time you took care of a kid with that high of a temperature, but I bet. Everyone in the entire house was miserable. The rash in the literature is said to be uncomfortable and itchy, but not painful. So that's not much of a concern.

Sue:

But measles can come with serious risks. More than chickenpox, more than other viruses. So when it comes to measles parties, in my opinion, it's one thing if your child just happens to get it. But given the large amount of herd immunity that still exists in America, your child conceivably. Could never encounter this illness in the wild.

Sue:

People who do not vaccinate their children really do owe the health of their children to herd immunity in America. That combined with healthy food and clean water, but the role of herd immunity. Cannot be discounted. And it's an important safety net. That those who cannot get vaccinated due to health conditions such as allergies or cancer can rely on to keep their kids alive during outbreaks of illnesses.

Sue:

So when it comes to parties, ask yourself, how guilty would you feel if your child was one of the few to develop severe illness because of a choice that you made? Consider that if you go to a measles party, you would be exposing your child to very high levels of viral load. High viral loads can more easily overwhelm a host. I cannot find a lot of sources on this, but I did find a few, and again, I will try to post all my sources in the show notes that show specifically. That measles, because all viruses are different, but specifically measles does have higher associated risks, and a shorter incubation period at higher viral loads this increases your child's chance of getting severe disease, so I want you to at least consider the risk of your child getting sicker from a party than they would have if they encountered measles in the wild, where hopefully it would be in a larger space or outside where there's more ventilation and they would be exposed to less viral load.

Sue:

And third. The most important reason doctors and health officials are concerned is that measles does come with serious risks. Serious risks are rare, but they are out there one serious risk that is present in all cases is the concept of immune amnesia. Measles is a tricky little jerk. That hijacks the body's own immune system, not just the genetic manufacturing components of the body. It uses a form of white You have many different kinds, but if you're specifically want to know which kind, it involves macrophages and dendritic cells that it binds to in the respiratory tract.

Sue:

Measles then replicates within the macrophages, and then like little terrorists, measles uses our own immune cells to bring the virus to our lymph nodes where it will spread to T cells and B cells, and then move throughout the entire host's body. Since it is the body's own immune cells, the T cells and the B cells themselves that are infected with measles virus, the body marks its own cells as targets and kills off the infected T cells and B cells in a widespread purge.

Sue:

So what are the T cells and the B cells in your body responsible for? They are responsible for remembering diseases you've already encountered and making antibodies that specifically target those pathogens. So all of the illnesses that you or your child's immune system have been remembering and keeping an eye out for all those little memory soldiers could be gone.

Sue:

Now the body does recover from measles, but once it does the memory cells, those T cells and B cells that are made to replace the ones that were destroyed in the infection, they only remember measles. Much of your other immune memory is lost. That means that a recovered patient has to reacquire. This immunity, it means that you or your child are going to get sick again with all the illnesses you thought you were done with.

Sue:

Mama, you are gonna be up all night walking the floor with that child all over again for the same illnesses you were up walking the floor with last year. Because measles erased your child's immunity down to the level of a newborn, and that child will take. Two to five years to recover from that loss.

Sue:

And unfortunately, in that time period they could reacquire these illnesses and get gravely ill with these other illnesses measles Amnesia is responsible for many hospitalizations. People who have immune amnesia are going to get sick again, and in their weakened state. They could end up in the hospital with a serious illness from flu or norovirus or any of the other colds and general illnesses that they are going to get. All over again.

Sue:

And also consider that children are not the only ones who could get sick. At risk populations include people who are immunocompromised due to conditions such as cancer or organ transplant, the elderly, pregnant women, and many others. So your grandma and your pregnant neighbor whose immune systems are a little down are at risk of contracting this virus and it would be much harder on their systems.

Sue:

It is up to all of us to keep our neighbors and our relatives safe. We are a community. We are Americans. We have each other's backs, at least those are the American values that I was raised with.

Sue:

COVID and the current political environment have thrown a big monkey wrench into how that plays out in our communities. But it is time to get back to the idea that you are your brother's keeper. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And love your neighbor as you love yourself. And in the world of microbiology, that means doing your part to keep your community as healthy as possible.

Sue:

Doing your part brings me to my last point. There is a perfectly safe and effective way of avoiding measles altogether, and that is the MMR vaccine. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing illness.

Sue:

Herd immunity can protect the vulnerable peoples in our communities that are unable to get vaccinated due to age or health status. Herd immunity can protect you. Your child, and our country in general.

Sue:

Now, I want you to remember, health is a measure of the strength of a nation. Both acute illness and chronic disease hamper our nation's ability to be productive, to be safe, and to have a strong economy. It's all tied together and we can work together to keep each other safe and healthy. Now we have so much more to discuss about this virus. We have to talk about what measles used to look like in this country before vaccination.

Sue:

We need to talk about the severe complications of measles because there are some major issues that occur and can keep occurring for years after the person has recovered, and we need to talk about vaccine safety. Why do people think this particular vaccine isn't safe, even though it has been proven over and over to be very safe and very effective?

Sue:

I really think that I'm gonna have to roll this out in three parts. So in the next episode, we're going to talk about what the disease landscape looked like in the United States before the vaccine. We will dig into severe measles infections and sequela, which is just a fancy medical word that means the leftover problems of an illness that linger with a patient for months to years up to the rest of their life.

Sue:

And we're gonna touch on treatments of measles and what our HHS Director is doing for the American people who are being affected by this outbreak. Then I will devote a third episode entirely to this vaccine because every time one concern is addressed, someone brings up another crazy theory that needs to be squashed.

Sue:

And I want you all to remember it is so very easy to make false as assertations regarding a vaccine. And vaccines seem to be the boogeyman that everyone wants to go after these days. It takes two minutes and a short blurb on the internet to cause years of damage and ruin. Years of built up trust from organizations, doctors and scientists who worked hard and did everything by the book to research vaccines and bring them to the public so that we can have better public health in our country.

Sue:

If you find someone out there that offers you a quick blurb of descent on vaccines and offers no proof or proof that can easily be refuted by multiple sources, then they are probably trying to sell you something.

Sue:

Maybe it's their book. Maybe they want you to join their class action lawsuit. Maybe it's their three step course on detoxing your body. Maybe it's chelation therapy, but I guarantee you it's something I currently have no sponsors.

Sue:

This is just me shouting from the void and my very own house. I'm in my weight room if you can't tell, 'cause it just has the best lighting in my house. For those of you who can see me on YouTube.

Sue:

And I'm just a nurse that loves people and I love this country and I want the best for both. I will monetize commercials and things like that if I'm able to eventually. If I keep going with this project, because this actually takes a ton of time, people who create content on YouTube and other, podcasts, I had no idea before I started this, but this has taken me hours and hours and hours of time, and I am only on episode three. Oh my gosh. So I feel like that is a fair exchange for my time if I'm able to monetize a little bit. But know that I will tell you I will. Fully disclose any sponsorships or any commercializations.

Sue:

I have no snake oil. I do not have a course to sell you. I have no book deal and I am certainly not part of any lawsuit, and I cite multiple high value sources I just wanna be as transparent as I can, and I want you to be able to find really good sources of information. Because listen, the human body is so complex and immunology is one of the most complex parts of us.

Sue:

Years and years of research have gone into these vaccines and the treatment protocols for measles, for patients that are hospitalized. Many more years of research were spent on analyzing the data gathered from 60 plus years. Of administering this same vaccine to millions and millions of people, and after all this time, the vaccine has still been shown to be safe and effective.

Sue:

So I will leave you with that. Please vaccinate yourself and your children. It is the safest option, and as one of our great founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Sue:

Vaccines are preventative medicine at its best. Preventative medicine makes our nation stronger. So my call to action this week, if you are in an outbreak area, avoid going to a measles party or listening to advice that, tells you to just get it over with.

Sue:

Get a vaccine if you are eligible, get your children vaccinated. It is a safe. Simple, effective and cost efficient method to prevent disease. Think about the bill you would get in America if your child went to the ICU with severe complications. I can tell you that I had a NICU baby and my bill was over $80,000 for two weeks of care, and that was 10 years ago. Can you imagine what that bill would be today?

Sue:

Save your children, save your finances. It's all good. If you are concerned about your immunity level, you can ask your doctor to order a lab for you called a titer. This is where they take a blood sample and look for the antibodies that are specific to measles. You should have some in your system. If your values are too low, you can get a booster shot.

Sue:

I wish you all the blessing of good health and prosperity. Please like and subscribe for more healthcare information if you are watching on YouTube. For those of you who are listening on the podcast websites, thank you so much for listening. I love you all. Take care.

Sue:

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-history/why-measles-so-contagious https://www.cdc.gov/measles/hcp/communication-resources/clinical-diagnosis-fact-sheet.html https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/measles-what-you-should-know https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/virus-virulence https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/measles/facts https://www.sciencenews.org/article/one-number-can-help-explain-why-measles-so-contagious https://riseandshine.childrensnational.org/the-truth-about-measles-parties/ https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/measles-10-things-know-about-immunization-and-prevention https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4997572/ https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/measles-what-you-should-know https://asm.org/articles/2019/may/measles-and-immune-amnesia