“The fact that any child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease like measles is frankly an outrage and a collective failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable children.” Dr. Tedros Ghebreysus, Director-General of the WHO
District enforces no-excuses vaccine policy; parents called to pick up their kids
Jan 9, 2020
Fox News – Hundreds of students in Seattle were barred from class on Wednesday over outdated vaccination records.
District superintendent Denise Huneau said an estimated 565 students in the district did not have the correct vaccination records in order to attend class.
Those without the proper paperwork were required to stay in a room with staff members until their parents or guardians could come and pick them up.
Measles in Washington State
“In 2019, Washington had two outbreaks of measles … totaling 87 cases. This is the most cases the state has seen since 1990.” – State Department of Health
Any missed days over outdated immunizations records will be counted as unexcused absences, the district previously said, noting they will be marked as excused only after updated records are submitted.
The requirements are in light of a recent Washington State law that does away with any personal and/or philosophical exemptions to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine … Read more.
Complications of Measles
- About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the U.S. who get measles hospitalized.
- As many as 1 out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children.
- About 1 child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability.
- Nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications.
Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
6,000 dead in world’s worst measles outbreak
8 January 2020
BBC News – The number of people killed by a measles epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has passed 6,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
The WHO says the epidemic is the world’s largest and fastest moving.
Around 310,000 suspected measles cases have been reported since the start of 2019, the WHO says.
The Congolese government and the WHO launched an emergency vaccination programme last September.
More than 18 million children under five were vaccinated across the country in 2019, the WHO says.
But poor infrastructure, attacks on health centres and a lack of access to routine healthcare have all hindered efforts to stop the spread of the disease.
Every one of the country’s 26 provinces has reported cases of measles since the outbreak was declared in June last year.
DR Congo is also experiencing the second most deadly outbreak of Ebola the world has ever seen but this has killed less than half as many people as measles in the country.
“We are doing our utmost to bring this epidemic under control,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
“Yet to be truly successful we must ensure that no child faces the unnecessary risk of death from a disease that is easily preventable by a vaccine. We urge our donor partners to urgently step up their assistance.” Read more.
Measles deaths ‘staggering and tragic’
Dec 5, 2019
BBC News – More than 140,000 people died from measles last year as the number of cases around the world surged once again, official estimates suggest.
Most of the lives cut short were children aged under five.
The situation has been described by health experts as staggering, an outrage, a tragedy and easily preventable with vaccines.
Huge progress has been made since the year 2000, but there is concern that incidence of measles is now edging up.
In 2018, the UK – along with Albania, the Czech Republic and Greece, lost their measles elimination status.
And 2019 could be even worse. Study Finds True Cause of Autism, and It’s NOT Vaccines
The US is reporting its highest number of cases for 25 years, while there are large outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Ukraine.
What are the numbers?
The global estimates are calculated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.
They show:
- In 2000 – there were 28.2 million cases of measles and 535,600 deaths
- In 2017 – there were 7.6 million cases of measles and 124,000 deaths
- In 2018 – there were 9.8 million cases of measles and 142,000 deaths
Measles cases do not go down every year – there was an increase between 2012 and 2013, for example.
However, there is greater concern now that progress is being undone as the number of children vaccinated stalls around the world. Scientific American Slams The Door On The Vaccine Debate
“The fact that any child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease like measles is frankly an outrage and a collective failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable children,” said Dr Tedros Ghebreysus, director-general of the WHO.
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