As a new mother who is VERY into holistic health and wellness, vaccinations have been a source of confusion for me. I know many people who have had success with not vaccinating their children and know many others who would never even think about not vaccinating their children. With that said, this most recent outbreak of measles leaves us with a very scary situation on our hands. In today’s blog, I wanted to share what the pediatricians, emergency physicians, public health officials and Baptist Health South Florida want parents to know about measles.
First things first, the measles can yield flu-like symptoms and a rash that starts at your head and works its way downward, but the much scarier side of measles is that it can lead to life-threatening conditions like pneumonia and encephalitis or swelling of the brain. With that said, most significantly, vaccination offers the best prevention against the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), physicians and infectious disease experts.
And while other states are grappling with pockets of measles outbreaks, Florida is vulnerable because of its role as a hub for international travelers from countries with lower vaccination rates.
(Watch Now. The Baptist Health News Team hears from Agueda Hernandez, M.D., medical director of the Baptist Health Primary Care Family Medicine Center at West Kendall Baptist Hospital, and Fernando Mendoza, M.D., medical director of the Children’s Emergency Center at Baptist Children’s Hospital, about the potential threat of measles to unvaccinated children. Video by Alcyene Almeida Rodrigues.)
Over the years, there has been growing concern over the connection to the MMR vaccination and autism. What was a small scale study performed roughly 20 years ago, has since been discredited and retracted. And the medical license of the article’s writer was revoked by British authorities. While measles has remained a common disease in parts of the world, U.S. public health officials had considered the virus eradicated in 2000. But since then, outbreaks have surfaced in some states, culminating in a current multi-state outbreak that is alarming pediatricians and emergency physicians nationwide.
According to the BHSF experts, “Vaccination is the best prevention,” said Fernando Mendoza, M.D., medical director of the Children’s Emergency Center at Baptist Children’s Hospital and associate medical director of Pediatric Emergency Services at West Kendall Baptist Hospital. “Absolutely, 100 percent, that’s the best way to prevent it. Vaccinated kids don’t get the measles. There are reams and reams of data that show these vaccines are appropriate and effective.” While pneumonia and encephalitis from measles are rare, is it worth the risk?
Experts say vaccinations are Safer Than Ever:
Eileen Marty, M.D., professor, Infectious Diseases, at Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine says, “We have new technologies for making vaccines that are excellent. They do the job and create the neutralizing antibodies in your child.”
Emergency physicians in South Florida have not seen many measles cases. Currently, Florida is not one of the states with outbreaks. State health officials in Washington, New York, California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Colorado, and Georgia have reported measles cases exceeding the number of cases they usually see in a year. If you are in one of these states, note that the measles can start as an average cold and move quickly through your body. Yielding flu-like symptoms, pink eye and ultimately a rash all over your body. To give you a real-life example of the severity: “For every one person that gets the measles, 18 to 20 will become infected if they’re not vaccinated” says Dr. Mendoza. “To compare, one person with the flu will infect four other people who are not vaccinated
While making my decision to vaccinate (which we do), I researched, reached out to doctors and ultimately made the decision to move forward. I did make the decision to wait for his first shots until after we left the hospital and his latch was well established, but we have remained on schedule while splitting up certain shots here or there. If you are a new parent, questioning whether to vaccinate or not, I would take a deeper dive into this content from Baptist Health South Florida, talk to your pediatrician and other health practitioners you trust.