HEALTHMeasles outbreaks spur caution as a forgotten foe returnsPhysicians and public health officials are concerned that populations with low vaccination rates could let the disease take root here again.By Victoria Stagg Elliott, amednews staff. Dec. 1, 2003. Last January, a 24-year-old woman became feverish on a flight from the Philippines to New York and later broke out in a red rash. Diagnosis: measles. She has since recovered. But some public health officials have not experienced the same relief. Instead, they see this incident and a few others as sounding an alarm that this illness may re-emerge after years of decline. "It's a cautionary note," said Steve Cochi, MD, MPH, deputy director of the National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Measles is always on our doorstep." Experts point out that there is an unsettling reminder offered by this case -- the first of 39 reported to the NIP this year -- as well as this past summer's large outbreak in the Marshall Islands. According to a September report in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, hundreds of people in this former American territory, a jurisdiction that maintains strong economic ties to United States, became ill and three died because of a possible importation of measles from Asia. Because the virus is endemic to much of the world, it may always be just one flight away. "The resurgence of measles is related to the influx of people who are not immune, and it's the imported cases which pose the threat to the those people who are not vaccinated or have waning immunity," said Kurt Cullamar, MD, an internist and infectious disease specialist who is a geriatrics fellow at Maimonides Medical Center in New York. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
|
Women pay more for health care
Thirty-four states offer no protection against higher individual market premiums for women. Read story - View map Feature articlesFaces of the uninsured Four of the 46 million personal stories Mandating cultural competency Should physicians be required to take courses? Ownership loses its luster Physicians less likely to go solo Comprehensive coverage
Most-viewed
Nov. 2 issueH1N1 vaccine shortage leaves doctors managing crowds, anxieties Failed Senate vote clouds future of SGR reform Columns and series
From the vault: 5 years agoChallenges in state courts: New tort reforms under fire Nov. 1, 2004 
|
SHARE
