The measles epidemic sweeping the country has still not come to Elko County despite earlier reports according to the Nevada Division of Public Health.
In a press release last week Elko County School District Superintendent Jeff Zander and School nurse
Administrator Bobbi Shanks informed parents that a possible case of measles in Spring Creek turned out to be unfounded and that Elko herd immunity was still intact.
Once almost eradicated a generation ago measles made a strong comeback in 2014 with outbreaks all over the country beginning with Disneyland in Anaheim California.
According to the CDC there are at least 150 confirmed cases of measles and there are no signs of the epidemic letting up.
There are however strong redoubts like Elko County where 99 percent of the population has been vaccinated that form a bulwark against measles.
Of the first 34 people with measles for whom the California Department of Public Health had vaccination records, only five had received both doses of the measles vaccine, as generally recommended, according to the agency. One received just the first dose.
Nationally, officials are seeing the same trend, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, who directs the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Some of those 34 cases tracked by California may not be included in the 121 tally by the CDC because they were reported before Jan. 1.
“This is not a problem with the measles vaccine not working,” she said during a news conference last Thursday. “This is a problem of the measles vaccine not being used.”
The CDC is seeing more adult cases of measles than usual during this outbreak, Schuchat said, adding that children are getting the virus, too.
Cases have now been reported in 17 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington, according to the CDC. The agency issued a health advisory on Jan. 23, at which point the virus had only spread to six states beyond California and Mexico.
The United States last year reported its highest number of measles cases in two decades, with 644 cases as part of 20 separate outbreaks, according to the CDC. Health officials attribute the spike to a measles outbreak in the Philippines and overseas travelers.
The measles virus is contagious long before symptoms appear and it is airborne, which is what makes it so contagious, according to the CDC. One infected person with the measles can spread it to an average of 18 other people, and it can linger in the air and live on surfaces to spread after an infected person has left a room.
Complications include HEARING LOSS, pneumonia and swelling of the brain, according to the CDC. About one or two people out of every 1,000 people infected with the measles die of the virus.
But while Elko county stands tall against measles the record is not so good against whooping cough.
The anti-vaccination movement is making its presence felt in Elko County and the rest of rural Nevada as the number of once rare diseases is beginning to climb say public health officials.
Late last year, the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, Elko County School District and Immunize Nevada hosted vaccination clinic to combat an out break of whooping cough which has seen a 100 percent increase in just the last year. Elko County had reported 14 confirmed cases of pertussis since July, compared to 15 total cases of pertussis in Elko County in 2013 and two cases in 2012.
Also known as pertussis is a highly communicable respiratory disease, typically accompanied by a severe cough that makes a “whooping” sound. Pertussis is very dangerous, even fatal, for those who are not vaccinated, especially infants and young children.
Although once almost completely eradicated in the US , whooping cough as well as a host of other childhood diseases are making a comeback due to the anti-vaccination movement that claims vaccinations can cause autism and a variety of other disabilities to children.
Just this week however on of the largest autism groups Autism Speaks publicly announced that the claim that autism and vaccinations were somehow linked was unequivocally false.
