Measles outbreak reaches Bay Area, 30 babies now under isolation

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/27/1360484/-Measles-outbreak-reaches-Bay-Area-30-babies-now-under-isolation?detail=email

TUE JAN 27, 2015 AT 09:26 AM PST



The measles outbreak that began in Disneyland has now affected people in 7 states and Mexico, a total of 87 people and counting.

In the East Bay, today we get news that 30 babies are under isolation in Alameda County.

Officials with the Alameda County Public Health Department asked the parents of the infants to keep their children at home to avoid further exposure to the contagious illness, department spokeswoman Sherri Willis said.

The babies are not infected, Willis said, but had some contact or connection to the measles patients in Alameda County.

FULL story at link.

[NuclearDem]

1. Thanks a fucking bunch, anti-vaxxers.

[shenmue]

2. From the CDC website:

"About three out of 10 people who get measles will develop one or more complications including pneumonia, ear infections, or diarrhea."

These poor kids!

[Omaha Steve]

3. Several children nationwide have died this winter already

[shenmue]

4. Mercy

[Terra Alta]

5. It's very sad that parents have to keep their newborns and infants at home

so they won't contract what is largely a preventable disease.

Well, I hope the anti-vaxxers are happy.

[postulater]

6. Speaking of which. The new Scientific American has an article about immunity in it.

I haven't read all of it yet but it looks pretty interesting.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-immune-system-is-made-not-born/

"Genetics had almost no effect on how well individuals responded to the flu vaccine, judged by antibodies produced against the injected material. And among identical twin siblings, who have the same genome, immune system features differed more strikingly within older twin pairs than in younger sets. The findings, published January 15 in Cell, argue that life habits and experiences shape our body’s defenses more than the DNA passed down from our parents."

So since immunity begins with the first exposure to your environment, your parents had better make your environment conducive to a healthy immune system.

The first few months are crucial to developing immunity, with the help of the passive immunity passed through mother's milk and the cultivation of the infant's microbiome (of course, all immunized children are breast-fed, right?). Build a healthy child that will have a stronger immune system and it will be better able to mount a stronger response to both endemic and epidemic pathogens.