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Show Human Disease Prevention Thru Education By Michael Harrison Health Educator Measles are dangerous 4 "At first I thought it was just a cold," a mother said. "But then his glands started to swell there in his neck and he said he felt pretty sick. And now those spots..." The doctor, who had seated the boy on his examining table, lifted the boy's head slightly and moved his fingers gently in the area of the neck under the base of the jaw. It hurt a little, but the boy did not complain. . "Well, nothing exotic," the doctor said. "It's measles." "Measles?" the mother said. "But nobody gets measles any more." "Yes, they do," the doctor told her. "Many more than you might think." The doctor, knowing that once the disease strikes there is nothing to be done except wait it out, recommended some ways to make the boy more comfortable and told the mother to call if his fever went up or if any unexpected signs appeared. "Measles," the boy's mother said again before she left. "Well, I'm relieved really. I was afraid it might be something serious." Most people share this mother's view. Almost all adults had measles as children, suffered through a week or two of sickness and watched the same thing happen to other children at school. And then it was all over. But not for everyone. What people did not realize then, and what a lot of people apparently don't know today, is that measles can be more serious. For example, it causes an ear infection in about one of ten children who get it. But it can be a lot worse than that. On the average, one child out of every ten thousand who get measles dies, and another one in 1,000 is stricken with encephalitis, a brain inflammation that can lead to convulsions, deafness, and mental retardation. One or two out of a thousand? Not very many. But it adds up. Measles is so highly contagious that any child who is not vaccinated runs a serious risk of getting it. And when you consider that vaccines with a well documented record of effectiveness and safety are readily available, that risk is not only unnecessary, it is foolhardy. Even the slightest chance of death or disability is more of a risk than any child should have to face. If parents are uncertain whether any of their children have had measles or measles vaccination, it is recommended recom-mended to have those children revaccinated. According to the Center for Disease Control, there is no harm done by vaccinating a child who has already had measles or measles vaccine. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. |