Measles In Nursing

Facts and figures available to study the epidemiological data for the outbreak of measles include gathering suspected and confirmed cases of this disease from the World Health Organization. This is done by gathering serum samples from all suspected cases to determine if a measles specific immunoglobulin antibody is detected. This particular disease lives in the nose and throat of the infected individual and is considered contagious for a period of four days before the rash appears and for a further four days after the sighting of the rash.

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.

Measles was discovered in the 19th century by a Persian Doctor, but was not recognized until 1957 as an infectious agent in human blood by a Scottish physician. In 1912 measles became a notifiable disease and in the first decade that records were kept there was on average 6,000 deaths per year reported from the disease. (Center For Disease Control). There is no definite origination of measles but scientists believe that it dates back to the Roman Empire about the 11th and 12th century (NCBI, 2010). The first outbreak known in America was in 1657 in Boston,

Measles was at one time in the not too distant past, a killer of those that became infected. Measles has been around for centuries. The first published, written account of the disease was in the ninth century by a Persian doctor. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on measles, it was not until 1757 that a Scottish physician, named Francis Home, proved that something infectious in the blood was causing the disease. By the early 1900’s, the United States began requiring every healthcare provider and laboratory to report all identified cases, with approximately 6,000 deaths being

Thirty-nine (35%) of the California patients visited one or both of the two Disney theme parks during December 17–20, where they are thought to have been exposed to measles, 37 have an unknown exposure source (34%), and 34 (31%) are secondary cases. Among the 34 secondary cases, 26 were household or close contacts, and eight were exposed in a community setting. In addition, 15 cases linked to the two Disney theme parks have been reported in seven other states: Arizona (seven), Colorado (one), Nebraska (one), Oregon (one), Utah (three), and Washington (two), as well as linked cases reported in two neighboring countries, Mexico (one) and Canada (10).”(CDC, February 11, 2015)

Imagine traveling to the “Happiest Place on Earth”, Disneyland, with your family. While you are there a person that has not been vaccinated is walking around with the measles virus in their system. While that person shows no signs or symptoms of the measles, they are infecting others that haven’t been vaccinated, due to young age or other purposes. Now what turned out to be many people’s family vacations is now a life-threatening situation for some. This type of outbreak actually occurred during December of 2014, where 40 Californians were exposed to the measles at Disneyland and 91 additional cases of the outbreak strain also occurred from the people exposed affecting others (Blumberg et al, 2015). Outbreaks likes this can potentially be

In December of 2014, an outbreak of measles, which started in Disneyland, resulted in nearly two hundred people being sickened across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The highly contagious respiratory disease spread for three months. Among those who contracted the illness, one developed severe pneumonia and multiple organ injury, while another suffered acute respiratory distress syndrome. So, why did an illness, which was purportedly eliminated sixteen years ago, experience a surge so dramatic that it caused more cases in 2014 than in the five preceding years combined? According to the CDC, the outbreak could be boiled down to one simple reason: “The majority of people were unvaccinated.” So while the California measles outbreak is a thing of the past, the fight to increase compliance with vaccinations continues. Although the benefits and safety of vaccinations are undisputed by the medical and scientific community, there are still sizeable groups of “anti-vaxxers” who refuse to vaccinate their children. These groups spread misconceptions, sometimes unknowingly, and become even more influential when coupled with the power of the internet and social media. Therefore, in order to increase compliance with routine vaccinations, the misconceptions of parents should be targeted, and legislation should be changed in order to prevent leniency and loopholes regarding vaccine exemptions.

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

Measles is still common problems in developing countries including Africa and Asia. Although measles vaccine is a safe and cost-effective, many countries cannot afford due to low incomes and weak health structures.

Numerous diseases that used to be widespread in the U.S. are now nearly eliminated. “An epidemic of rubella in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages. In 2012, 9 cases of rubella were reported to CDC.” (What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations?) Another disease that prevailed before its vaccine was polio, as you can see in this graph. The red line shows when the polio vaccine was introduced. In 2014, CNN reported that “Just five years ago, India was home to nearly half the global polio cases and considered one of the most technically difficult places to eradicate the disease, because of sanitation challenges and high-density population. India has been certified polio-free by the World Health Organization after going three years without an endemic case of polio. The eradication of polio in India is heralded as one of the biggest achievements in global health efforts.” (Madison Park) However, this isn’t the only success story, these are the percent decreases of before and after certain vaccines were introduced in the U.S. Here, diphtheria has a 100 percent decrease in the U.S after its vaccine was introduced. From 21,000 cases of diphtheria, there are now ZERO endemic cases in the U.S. What about measles? Before its vaccine, there were roughly 530,000 cases each year in

Despite not having met their goal, Measles was indeed declared eliminated in 2000. The World Health Organization defines elimination as the absence of endemic cases for a period of twelve months or more, in the presence of adequate surveillance.

Significance: The topic is very significant to my audience because unvaccinated children are becoming a rising problem and old diseases thought to have been eradicated have resurfaced and new and soon to become parents need to be educated.

Shots might hurt and can be life-threatening but it can be worth to prevent disease. Immunization is also known as vaccination. They are essential for adults as well as children to protect against infectious diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, and many others diseases (“Immunization: MedlinePlus,” 2014). Measles is one of the highly infectious diseases caused by virus among all of them. It spreads through the air by coughing and sneezing. It starts with the symptoms like fever, runny nose, cough, sore throat, red eyes and rashes spread all over the body. Usually measles can be prevented with complete recovery as soon as it is vaccinated with MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccines but it can lead

Measles is a highly transmissible viral infection caused by the rubeola virus. The first published record of the disease dates back to the 9th century. It has become an increased problem in the United States due to the elevated population travelling around the globe. Most outbreak cases of measles have come from Germany, India, England, France, Vietnam and the Philippines (Measles Cases and Outbreaks, 2017). The most recent measles outbreak was discovered on January 5th, 2015. After researching the outbreak, it was concluded that it originated between December 17th and 20th of 2014. It was linked to two Disney theme parks in California and believed to have been originally transmitted from the Philippines (Measles Outbreak, 2015). A total of

Infections disease prevention and control and communicable and infectious disease risks are important topics that every student nurse should be exposed to during the nursing program. The impact and threats that these infectious diseases cause an effect on society and global level should be studied. Also, the economic principles to nursing and health care that public health contributes to.