Measles Cases Continue in PA

Measles cases. We know over 1400 cases are reported in Pennsylvania. So a lot of people are on edge right now. We're going to bring in Dr. Carleen Muto to talk about it. Good afternoon. How are you? Hi. So happy to be here. Over 1400 cases reported in Pennsylvania. Really just talk about the importance of, you know, people getting vaccinated that are in or near those areas where we're finding these cases being reported. Yeah, there's about 5,000 cases in the United States. It was just crazy because in 2000, measles was eradicated in the United States. And so we went from like a couple, I don't know, 34 cases, that was our low in 2004 to now over 5,000 with more than a quarter of them being in Pennsylvania. And so as you may know, if you look at a map, it's clustered around a certain county and the counties surrounding that. And so it's Lancaster County. And the reason that we're seeing all of this transmission is because people aren't vaccinated. So measles is a really, really communicable illness, more than like influenza or any of the other things we see. For influenza, about, you know, if one person has it and they're exposed to other people who are not immunized or not protected, about three or four of those people out of 10 will get the influenza. For measles, nine out of 10 people will get measles if they're not vaccinated. So it's like a real crisis that we're seeing now because so many people in that area aren't vaccinated. Yeah, I think I was saying that fewer, you know, than 1% of cases have been fully vaccinated with the MMR vaccine. Yeah, that's correct. And it is really terrible because, you know, we have the numbers, right? It's like 1,400 in Pennsylvania. We have six deaths in Pennsylvania. Four of the eight deaths overall in the United States are in babies, babies less than one year old, one of them in a newborn, one of them in a six-week-old baby. And so it is really horrifying that those young children are not protected, because as you may remember, the vaccine series doesn't start. Until the child is about 12 to 15 months, and so they don't even have the opportunity to be protected at that very young age. So, you know, again, immunization is incredibly important for those who even intend to have their children vaccinated are susceptible and may get this disease. So what can people look out for? Like, what are the symptoms of people who catch measles? Yeah. So the first symptom is really just fever, right? And almost all cases have that. And then there's what's called the three C's. And so cough, conjunctivitis, which is kind of an infection of your eyes where they get red, and Koplik spots, which is just, you know, kind of runny nose and symptoms of regular sort of respiratory illness. The problem is that starts. And when that starts, you're already able to pass. virus. The issue is you don't get the rash, which is really more, I don't know, pathognomonic, meaning like when we see it as you're showing, we know it. And that doesn't start until a couple of days later. So you have what looks like kind of a respiratory illness at first. And then, you know, the rash appears and then, you know, people are more likely to be concerned about measles. Now we have educated all of our clinicians in the Temple Health System and I'm sure across the To be on the look for this. And so if we just see even those respiratory symptoms like fever county and cough and such, we ask questions like, where have you been? Have you been to this county? Have you traveled abroad? All of the things that would make us more likely to worry that this person or child you. has measles. Can you tell us what the most affected age group is for this? And sorry if you already said that. No, no, no. So it's really anybody who's not been, you know, immunized. In Pennsylvania, oddly, it's the sort of middle age group. About 50% overall in Pennsylvania are people between 18 years old and 49 years old. So it's that mid range. We also had a pregnant woman who had just delivered her baby, a 21 year old pregnant woman who just delivered, and she passed away from measles So I can't emphasize enough that all of these diseases, all of the illness, all of the deaths are preventable. The vaccine has wonderful, terrific efficacy. It works. If you're fully vaccinated, it's a 97% protection. And even if you were to get it, the case would be very mild. You would not have issues of concern for dying. Is there anything else that you want to share with us that we didn't touch base on just things that maybe people should know about, you know, either measles itself or the vaccination? Yeah. So, you know, I said that the normal vaccine schedule for children is that 12 to 15 months. But now in Pennsylvania, in areas where we have this very high concentration, like Lancaster County and the counties surrounding, we are offering immunization to our children, our babies, less than that 12 months, as early as six months. Now, it doesn't take. Place of the regular, you know, sort of routine immunization schedule. So at 12 months, you'd be revaccinated. But this is offering some protection to those to those babies and those infants that otherwise wouldn't be immunized until later. And so if you're a parent and intend to get your children vaccinated, ask your pediatricians, ask your physicians about getting that child vaccinated sooner. There's. Clinics all over to get vaccine, all of the pediatrician offices, all of the PCP offices, Walgreens, all of the commercial pharmacies, the Department of Health. It is so easy to get and it is free. So please, please, if you don't think you're vaccinated, you could actually get a blood test check, but do everything in your power to make sure you're immunized so that you don't get this illness and perhaps have the complications. There's other things than just dying. You can have problems with pneumonia or neurologic complications, which can be really, really serious. And so you don't want the illness at all. Certainly don't want its complications, and you don't want to die from this. 100%. 100%. Dr. Muto, thank you so much. You're so informative, and obviously this is super important. It's very scary that Pennsylvania is leading with the most cases across the country right now. So thank you so much for filling us in on this. Yes, thank you for having me and spreading this important information. Of course. Perfect. Thank you. Enjoy your Sunday.