2 weeks Ago By Michele Jarvie
With the federal election, tax deadlines, NHL playoffs and the arrival of spring, people have lots on their minds. Unfortunately, measles should be, too. It is a highly infectious and serious disease, and entirely preventable.
Alberta’s current outbreak of measles, affecting mostly children, should concern us all. Before vaccines became available, measles was an inevitable childhood illness. But it wasn’t a mild disease.
About 10 days after exposure to measles, fever begins — often high fever — together with some or all of red burning eyes, nasal congestion and cough. A few days later, a rash begins on the face and spreads downward. These symptoms occur because of widespread invasion by the virus and the body’s response to it.
The period from onset of fever to the end of the rash comprises seven to 10 miserable days. Complications occur in three out of 10 people, including ear infections, pneumonia and diarrhea with dehydration. Of infected people, 10 to 20 per cent require hospital admission, burdening our already overtaxed health system.
A small number (one or two per 1,000) develop brain infection, often leading to chronic disability or death. A similar number develop persistent brain inflammation (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis) five to 15 years following infection, resulting in behaviour and cognitive change and inevitable death. Measles is a horrid illness.
It is much more severe than most childhood infections. While most people recover, some don’t. Before the availability of vaccines, two to six million people (mostly children) died every year from measles globally; today, there are still 100,000 to 200,000 deaths per year.
In Alberta in the pre-vaccine 1950s, around 10 people (almost always children) died each year from measles. With our current population, and without immunization, measles would cause 45 to 50 deaths each year in Alberta, mainly in young children. The measles virus is uniquely diabolical.
It can destroy our immune system’s cells, causing “immune amnesia.” This makes individuals susceptible to a variety of infections, including diseases for which they previously had immunity. This increased risk of death from non-measles infections endures for two to three years after recovery from measles.
It is all entirely preventable with immunization. The measles vaccine is a live but very much weakened strain of the virus. Vaccine primes the immune system, protecting us from infection with the natural virus and all its complications.
Alberta introduced this vaccine in 1970. A single dose provided up to 93 per cent protection, but a large outbreak in Canada in 1995-96 taught us this was insufficient to prevent outbreaks with this extremely contagious virus. A second dose of vaccine was added in 1997, providing nearly 100 per cent protection.
.
