Unless you’ve been living with your head in sand, or under the blankets, or under a rock, measles is running roughshod over Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Y’all, Spartanburg county is only 76 miles from the county I live in in North Carolina.
All the data has been gleaned from Department of Public Health South Carolina website.
As of the Friday Measles Update, there have been 9 new measles cases in upstate. This brings their total number for THIS outbreak to 144.
This just in (the website hasn’t been updated yet). The newest total that has been reported for this measles outbreak is 153 confirmed cases. This doesn’t count the 249 in
Some children are on their second round of 21 days of quarantine.
In this latest update of confirmed cases, 34 are children under the age of 5, 101 are 5-17 (so school-aged), and 12 are adults and older.
Measles is no joke. It is at the top of the contagious disease list.
The MMR vaccine, which contains the measles, is one of the safest and most reliable vaccines that is in the vaccination playbook. According to the CDC, the MMR vaccine is 97% effective. It remains one of the most effective vaccines for the MOST contagious disease that there is a vaccine for.
What is the disconnect? Never mind, forget I asked that.
The MMR is 2 doses for those over 1 years of age. There is also an MMRV vaccine that also covers chicken pox for children 1-12 years of age.
According to the DPH South Carolina website, there are no scheduled vaccination events in this county. But you can request a visit from the Mobile Health Unit for vaccination.
You know what is worse than the fear that is being mongered around vaccines? Listening to these monsters and deciding that you, as a parent, know best, disregarding the hundreds of years of experience that public health workers have, and not vaccinating your children or yourselves.
Worse than that is actually getting the disease with its risks of death and disability.
But what do I know, I’m just a nurse who cares deeply about other people and their children.
Perhaps I should write a parody about the 21 Days of the Measles Quarantine. That is a Christmas song I don’t want to write/parody.
Or do I? Stand by for that one.
Also your grandparents and your great-grandparents are rolling over in their graves at the thought that the vaccines that they would have killed for are being discounted by spoiled brats who think a social media influencer who just wants likes and clicks knows better than most of the public health nurses and doctors.
Maybe public health has been too effective.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 