The Measles Virus

The measles vaccination is a live virus that is transformed into a weak strain of the virus so that your body can identify the cells that make up the virus. When your body comes in contact with the virus your body will know how to fight it off so that you don’t become sick.

Once a person recovers from measles, they are immune for the rest of their life.

The new trend of parents not having their children vaccinated for measles is causing harm to the child and contributing to future outbreaks of the disease.

There was a time in history when nearly all children in America had contracted the measles virus before the age of 16. This was in the decade before 1963. During this time, each year an estimated three to four million people in the United States were infected, with 48,000 hospitalized, and 400-500 fatalities. In 1963 the measles virus vaccine was licensed in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Today, the notoriously rampant measles virus is almost unheard of. Measles is one of many diseases that have been prevented, or eradicated by the use of vaccines. Today many of America’s most infamous diseases such as Measles, Hepatitis A, Mumps, and Pertussis have seen a greater than 85% decrease in reported contractions since the pre-vaccine era, and the Smallpox virus has been completely eradicated (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Despite all of the remarkable statistics proving the effectiveness of vaccines, today’s anti-vaccine movement is making strong waves upon society.

It has been a hot topic lately in the radio, television, and news about parents not getting their kids measle vaccination even though it is mandatory, causing other problems to parents that took their kids to get vaccination shot. Measle is highly contagious respiratory disease that is caused by a virus, it was eliminated in the 19th century but it came back and is widely spreading again, affecting children that are vaccinated and children who did not took the shot at school, which is causing worries to the parents. It is mandatory to get a measle vaccination, it is crucial for everyone to participate in order for the virus to be fully eliminated, and parents who are working will be rest assured to leave their son and daughter to the school’s care.

Vaccination saves lives. The parent or guardian has complete control in safeguarding their child from effects of illnesses such as measles. Parenting a child is an enormous responsibility as the parent must learn the facts about the possible diseases that can affect their children (Romm, 2001). However, in the public health sector, the importance of vaccination seems to be underestimated. Some of these public health practices not utilized to their maximum capacity hence disease that can be prevented by vaccines primarily remain a threat to the child’s health. Suggestions were drawn that the gap remains because, within the health sector, the process done on a vaccine by vaccine basis. This paper will clearly define the importance of vaccinating children and bring to light the critical importance of vaccination to child development.

Audience Hook: In the early 50’s polio paralyzed thousands, in the early 40’s Pertussis (whooping cough) caused 8000 deaths and there were millions of reported cases of measles before 1963. Thanks to immunization, the numbers of cases reported have declined tremendously and in some diseases, there are zero cases to report.

In order to understand the importance of the MMR vaccine, a short history of the measles illness, measles vaccine, some complications of the illness and a brief look at the prevalence of measles will be provided. This information was researched through the National University library search engine, more specifically smart search. Proquest central and academic search premier were the two research databases used to research the topics using the following key words or phrases: measles, measles vaccine, and MMR. The search engine Pubmed was also utilized with the following key phrases: measles immunosuppression, measles, and measles vaccine.

In ignoring the recommendations from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) there has been increase in outbreaks, which can be linked to vaccine refusal (Phadke, Bednarczyk, Salmon, Omer, 2016). In Table 1. of the article Association Between Vaccine Refusal and Vaccine-Preventable Disease in the United States, it clearly demonstrates that more cases of measles were found with those who were unvaccinated against measles. From 2000 to 2015 there were a reported 1416 cases of measles and of those 804 were unvaccinated against measles.

The advantages of child vaccination have been pertinent to a child’s overall health for numerous years. Over fifty years ago, in 1963, the measles vaccine was created and introduced to the United States. The measles vaccine was important to such a degree that it is referred to as a “life-saving advance.” This vaccine had the power to protect millions of children from the exceptionally contagious disease. Around this time, measles had the power to overcome four million children, create serious enough complications to hospitalize 48,000 children, and progress to bad enough conditions to result in death for more than 400 children on an annual basis (Parker). Childhood fatalities caused by measles has declined by 74% since the creation of the measles

The highly infectious disease known as measles is caused by the rubeola virus. The rubeola virus is a single-stranded RNA virus that is spread via contact with aerosolized particles from respiratory secretions. The incubation period for the virus is 10 to 12 days, and starts presenting as fever, cough, runny nose, and conjunctivitis, which last a few days. During this period, spots appear on mucous membranes of cheeks and lips that appear as gray-white lesions on a bright red surface. The rash that begins 14 days post exposure is characterized by an erythrematous, maculopapular eruption starting on the face/head, and spreading across the trunk and extremities, lasting approximately one week. This infection is systemic and can result

Prior to the modern era of childhood immunizations, parents would have been surprised at the thought that future generations would be able to protect their children from many of the most serious childhood infectious diseases. The development of immunizations is fairly recent, but one of the greatest successes in medical history. Most parents in the United States understand how imperative childhood immunizations are, but there are some parents that still chose to not have their children immunized against these lethal diseases. For some, the justification for denying these immunizations come from a religious perspective, but for most the decision is more commonly made out of ignorance or misinformation such as myths of side effects and long term effects of these vaccines. Many parents to not know the history of these fatal diseases and what parents had to fear when they did not have the option to vaccinate their children. After all, there was a time when diphtheria was one of the most feared childhood diseases, claiming more than 10,000 lives a year in the United States during the 1920s (CDC, Diptheria, 2016). In the 1940s through the 1950s, polio paralyzed and even took the lives of children by the thousands. At one point in time, the measles affected nearly a half-million US children every year. Almost everyone in the United States got it at some point during childhood—and it sometimes caused complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis (CDC, Measles (Rubeola), 2016).

During 1980`s, Asia, Europe, Africa and South America had great numbers of measles cases and low numbers of vaccination. China had the highest number of measles outbreak over a million in 1980. By 1990`s, vaccination levels were above 90% almost in every continent except Africa. According to World Health Organization, the highest numbers of measles cases were seen in China, Congo and Nigeria in 2013 (Table I). Therefore, it can be concluded that measles is not a great threat to the rest of the World. However, measles outbreaks can be seen in any country because it is a highly contagious disease. Since people travel around the World a lot in the 21st century, a sick person coming in from a different country could bring the measles virus which leads to an outbreak. Also, China, with a 99% immunization, still happen to have the highest count of measles. So vaccination rates don`t necessarily explain the number of cases occurring as it can be seen in Table I (“Mapping measles”, 2015).

The measles is a skin disease that can spread through contact with saliva or mucous, but it can also be spread throughout the air by a person sneezing or coughing. The disease can live on a person for several hours. It can sit on surface from traveling in the air and can come in contact with people within a close proximity. You can prevent the measles with a dose of immunoglobulin. Mostly little kids are at risk for measles if you don’t vaccinate them early. There are several symptoms for the measles. The many symptoms include coughing, fever, red eyes, light sensitivity, muscle aches, a runny nose, sore throat, and finally white spots in the mouth. Some things can put you at risk for getting the measles for example, if you have too Vitamin

Immunization is defined as the process of giving immunity to prevent infectious diseases by artificial methods (The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia). Statistics show that vaccines prevent more than 2.5 million child deaths per year (Davey, et al 5). These deaths typically occur in children under the age of 5. Immunizations are arguably one of the most important benefits of modern medicine offered in our country. Vaccines are given to prevent a serious disease or illness. They are generally only given to healthy people to help boost immunity (Sanford, S52). Without vaccines diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), polio (IPV or OPV), diphtheria tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP), Haemophilus Influenzae type b (HIB) and Hepatitis (HEP A, B, C) would still be prevalent (Sanford, S61). Within the 21st century, there have been many positive changes occurring throughout our world. Vaccination is the most important factor in reduction of deaths or serious diseases in children under the age of 5 (Kennedy, 1). Controversy remains if whether the risk of side effects from the vaccines, outweigh the risk of contracting the disease. Vaccinations have proven to be an effective method of preventing serious diseases, which are the cause of many childhood illnesses that often result in fatality (Kennedy, 1).