Measles: An Infectious Disease

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.

In early April 2013 a measles outbreak was discovered in North Carolina. By mid-May the outbreak had been identified in Stokes and Orange Counties via 23 active cases. Every case was linked back to a family that had spent 3 months in India and had not been vaccinated. By the 16th of April the state laboratory of Public Health was able to confirm the diagnosis, with the last known case being confirmed on May 7th. The investigation of this outbreak revealed 4 patients with a confirmed diagnosis that had received one of vaccination of the two part series. The other 19 cases had not ever been vaccinated.

* Collaborating with government and international agencies to reduce mortality and expand measles elimination goals on a global level. ("Vaccines and

In Michelle Fox’s article, Expect measles outbreak to continue, says doctor, Dr. William Schaffner, Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine, says that the outbreak will continue for some time because there is a sufficient number of unvaccinated children to continue the spread of measles. According to the CDC, there have been 84 cases of measles and 67 of those have been linked to the outbreak at Disney. Dr. Schaffner also reiterates that measles can be brought to the United States from overseas. If someone from another country comes here with measles and is around unvaccinated children, there is potential to spread the disease.

Wolfson stated in his interview “Measles is not a big deal.” Measles outbreak in the United States has increased tremendously since parents refuse to have their children vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published a report, “Measles Cases and Outbreaks,” that shows how the measles cases have been increase nationwide.

Within this essay appraisal of health protection as part of the ‘bigger picture’ of Public Health will be explored. A Deeper exploration of Measles will be evaluated along with an appraisal and analysis of an environmental hazard, The impact of communicable diseases and environmental hazards within public health and the factors that determine the severity of that impact will also be discussed.

Measles is an airborne disease that is spread through respiration (contact with fluids from an infected person's nose and mouth, either directly or through aerosol transmission (coughing or sneezing)), and is highly contagious—90% of people without immunity sharing living space with an infected person will catch it.[4] An asymptomatic incubation period occurs nine to twelve days from initial exposure. The period of infectivity has not been definitively established, some saying it lasts from two to four days prior, until two to five days following the onset of the rash (i.e., four to nine days infectivity in total), whereas others say it lasts from two to four days prior until the complete disappearance of the rash. The rash usually appears

In 2008 140 measles cases were reported in the United States. Travelers to Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, India, Israel,

According to the IUPUI Newsroom, one of the most contagious diseases is measles. In fact, it is so contagious that if an infected person comes into contact with 20 unvaccinated individuals, 19 of those 20 people will acquire measles (Indiana 1). An introduction vaccine against measles was discovered in 1940, and was described as a powerful tool to protect soldiers from devastating epidemics of pneumonia (Conis 5). Measles were first discovered in 1757 by Francis Home, who established that it was caused by an infectious organism in a person’s blood. In 1912, it became recognized in the United States, which required public

The measles virus has been around for a long time. It is also one of the diseases that was successfully eliminated from the United States in the year 2000 through mass immunization programs that effectively rendered the virus with no hosts to populate (CDC, n.d.). Even though it is considered eliminated there are some small cases of it throughout the year mostly small and localized issues. An outbreak is only classified when more individuals get the disease than anticipated.

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).

Measles is highly contagious and causes a rash on the body all the (easily spread) infection. In addition, red measles, or measles is called (Measles (Rubeola)-Topic Overview, n.d). Measles is a highly contagious disease that can be spread through contact with infected mucus and saliva. In an infected person's cough or sneeze air can move the virus. Measles is a major cause of child deaths. In 2010, there are deaths about 139 300 related to measles, According to the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that most of the victims are under 5 years old (WHO). If infected person comes in contact who with a measles vaccine immunization and if not, visit the doctor to receive the measles vaccine contacted within 72 hours to prevent infection.

Even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available, measles is one of the leading cause of death among young children.

Mumps is a virus meaning that they are intracellular parasite, the only way to multiply is through the host. Mumps a viral disease of the human species, caused by the mumps virus Paramyxovirus. Mumps virus is spherical single-stranded, negative-sense that only has one strand of RNA. The mumps virus is caused by the Paramyxovirus family, that is also a genus of the Rubulavirus. Mumps usually has spherical shaped and roughly 150 -300nm (nanometers) in size. With a double lipid envelope that contains the RNA strand(genome), there is a helical that holds the RNA. Mumps has a structure around the envelope that contains two viral glycoproteins called H-hemagglutinin and F-fusion protein, which help the virus bond to host cells and penetrate the

The Latin name for measles is rubeola. The pathogen which causes the disease is a paramyxovirus, which is one of a group of RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses. Measles is a respiratory disease caused by a virus, and also comes out in a rash. The virus enters the body via the respiratory system, and grows in the cells at the back of the throat and in the cells that line the lungs, from there it then enters the blood stream and circulates the body.