In December of 2014, an outbreak of measles was found to have originated from Disneyland. This discovery shocked the U.S, raising concerns about contagion and highlighting a determined group of individuals, who refuse to have their children vaccinated, due to fears surrounding the possible detrimental effects of vaccines.
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\nBut what many people don\u2019t realize is that earlier in 2014, a much larger outbreak occurred in our very own state. The outbreak occurred from March to July of 2014 and was centered in Knox County.
\nAdditional cases were reported in the surrounding counties of Ashland, Coshocton, Crawford, Highland, Holmes, Richland, Stark and Wayne. However, Knox and its Amish community was the worst affected, due to their lack of vaccinations.
\nThis outbreak\u2019s carriers were two Amish missionaries returning from the Philippines, where they aided victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan. At the time, the Philippines was suffering from a massive measles outbreak with over 26,000 reported cases. Since Jan. 13, 2015, the outbreak has been downgraded to a level-one watch, requiring only travelers take basic precautions.
\nThe earliest onset of symptoms in the Ohio outbreak began March 24, and the case with the most recent onset began July 23. The official 42 days (or 2 incubation periods) has passed without further cases reported, resulting in a total of 382 reported cases of measles during the outbreak\u2019s duration with only 9 serious enough to require hospitalization.
\nThis outbreak accounted for over half the total 614 cases of measles reported in 2014, and its severity was attributed to the Amish community\u2019s lack of measles vaccination.
\nMeasles, also known as rubella, is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus and is spread through the air by coughing or sneezing. The symptoms are fever, runny nose, coughing and the telltale rash that spreads over the entire body.
\nThe United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all children and adults born during or after 1957 receive the vaccine.
\nThere hasn\u2019t been a \u2018homegrown\u2019 case of measles occurring in the U.S. since the year 2000, and the last recorded U.S. measles related death happened in 2003. This is attributed to the aggressive vaccination campaign that has prevented the virus from flourishing here.
\nBut the measles vaccine isn\u2019t a permanent preventative nor a certainty doctors warn, as it has a 99% effectiveness rating, and there is always the remaining 1% percent chance of contracting it.
\nIn a Finnish study published in the Journal of Infectious Disease, researchers checked on people who received the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine 20 years prior, and they found the antibodies induced by the vaccine had waned. However, doctors say there is no harm in being vaccinated again, especially if you\u2019re going to be in areas where an outbreak has occurred or has the potential to, such as traveling abroad.
\nIf you\u2019re concerned about your measles immunity, doctors can perform a simple blood test to check your antibodies. Ask your primary care provider for a \u2018measles titer\u2019 to check your status.
\nIt is especially important to be concerned about your immunity if you were born during or after 1957, but also if you were born between 1963 and 1977. This is because when the measles vaccine first came out, there were two versions of it: one that contained a \u2018live\u2019 version of the virus, which is still being used today, and the other that contained a \u2018dead,\u2019 or inactive version of the virus, which was proven ineffective and removed from the market in 1967.
\nAs for those born up to 1977, the American Academy of Pediatrics only started recommending that two doses of the vaccine be administrated to children after their first birthday, as one dose has a 95 percent chance of effectiveness, whereas two doses increase the odds to 99 percent.
\nThose born after 1977 were old enough at the time of the recommendation to have received the second dose, but those born before then and those who were inoculated between 1963 and 1967, when the faulty vaccine existed, should check their medical records about how much vaccine and which kind they received. If they are unsure or concerned, they should consult their primary care physician.<\/p>\n
Brianna Vallet In December of 2014, an outbreak of measles was found to have originated from Disneyland. This discovery shocked the U.S, raising concerns about contagion and highlighting a determined group of individuals, who refuse to have their children vaccinated, due to fears surrounding the possible detrimental effects of vaccines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[2077],"class_list":["post-11006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-brianna-vallet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2Rw","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11007,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11006\/revisions\/11007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nReporter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"