On March 6th, the Michigan Health and Human Services Unit issued a statement that confirmed one case of measles among a traveler in the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Almost in the same interval of time, there was another confirmed case of measles in New Jersey that involved the infection of a young child who departed from the Newark Liberty International Airport on March 12th . Measles, being very infectious in nature through the respiratory tract, could have easily transmitted to other individuals during the plane ride or at the respective airports. Because of it’s relatively long incubation period that varies from 7 to 28 days, measles has been stated to develop symptoms as late as in April 12thin individuals who might have been exposed on March 12th.
Since the year 2000, measles was declared eradicated from the US except for the occasional cases that involved traveling into or out of the US. The recent development highlights some important facts that must be taken into consideration. In recent years, anti-vaccination groups have picked up steam and have convinced a significantly concrete proportion of the US and world population to not vaccinate for fear of either getting autism (completely false and has been disproven by the whole scientific community) among other complications and objections (once again not backed by any credible data). Because of this unfortunate change in behavior in the US, there has been a progressively marked increase in the incidence of measles cases and outbreaks here in the US. Individuals who are immunocompromised, the very young, and people that cannot vaccinate against measles for some reason or another cannot be protected in this environment that is lacking in herd immunity, and thus even more lives are at stake as a result.
Bottom line, please vaccinate yourself, convince others to vaccinate as well. Vaccination is not only about your perceived health, but about the health of others in society as well.
-Daniel Gutierrez
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