- Hello, Jeff -- Here we go again. We
are still faced with a spreading 11 State Mumps outbreak and now we must
try to contain an IMPORTED measles outbreak. A contract worker who just
returned from INDIA is likely the index case in this measles outbreak.
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- Measles is NOT the benign chidhood disease
we are led to believe, as it can cause, in adults, fatal encephalitis and
pneumonia.
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- Patricia Doyle
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-
- By Belinda Yu
- 5-26-6
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- BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston health officials worked on Thursday to contain
the city's first outbreak of measles in seven years after four people in
a downtown office tower were diagnosed with the highly infectious disease.
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- The Boston Public Health Commission opened
a second emergency health clinic at the 60-story John Hancock Tower after
it became known that hundreds of workers may be at risk of developing measles.
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- Measles was long considered a normal
childhood disease, but the virus can cause severe complications in otherwise
healthy children and adults, including sometimes fatal encephalitis, pneumonia
and diarrhea.
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- The four who were diagnosed with the
disease all worked at Investors Bank & Trust, a financial services
firm. Three of the workers caught the disease from a contract worker who
recently traveled from India.
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- An initial emergency clinic was set up
on May 11 after the first case emerged.
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- Only 37 measles cases were reported in
the United States in 2004, an all-time low, according to the most recent
data.
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- But a few cases are still imported from
countries with lower vaccination rates and the disease occurs domestically
as well, health officials say.
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- John Auerbach, Boston Public Health Commission's
executive director, said hundreds of workers at Investors Bank & Trust
had received vaccinations to prevent an outbreak.
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- While measles is very rare, Auerbach
said, "there are still pockets of the population that aren't immunized."
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- A month ago U.S. Public health officials
expressed concern about an outbreak of mumps in the Midwest and said some
people may have been infected on airline flights.
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- John Riley, head of marketing and communications
at Investors Bank & Trust -- a firm with 1,500 employees in Boston
-- said all four workers had recovered.
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- Measles is a highly contagious illness
that begins with a high fever, runny nose and watery, red eyes, and develops
into a rash that spreads over the body. The illness is spread through the
air when a sick person coughs, sneezes or even talks, according to a Massachusetts
Department of Public Health fact sheet.
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- Most developed countries routinely vaccinate
children against measles but the virus still killed 500,000 people, mostly
children, around the world in 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
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- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
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- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases"
message board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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