The measles outbreak has provoked California lawmakers to back legislation that would reduce personal belief exemptions for some or all required school vaccinations–but Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wants them to reconsider.
In the midst of the Disneyland measles outbreak, California legislators have been decrying the number of under-vaccinated children in schools in a push for legislation that would strip parents of the right to choose whether to vaccinate their children. However, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) statistics show that “personal belief” exemptions account for only 2.54% of under-vaccinated California school children.
On March 4, the Huffington Post claimed rendering guns inoperable, via a “trigger lock,” or inaccessible, via a safe, could save lives.
Samuel Sam-Sumana, the vice president of Sierra Leone, has imposed an Ebola quarantine on himself following the death of his bodyguard upon contracting the lethal virus.
Three more cases of measles have popped up in California since Monday, according to California Department of Public Health numbers released Wednesday–an increase after a hopeful weekend of no new cases. There has been a slowdown in new cases connected to the Disneyland outbreak, while passage of a California bill seeking to reduce parents’ options to exempt their school-age children from required vaccines has become more likely.
On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control revealed that a superbug called Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, triggers over 450,000 infections a year nationwide and causes nearly 15,000 deaths. The bacterial infection, which is contained in feces, can be contracted by contact through hands or contaminated surfaces.
Between multiple public health agencies from the U.S. and Canada, at least 147 cases of measles have been documented between December 28, 2014 and February 19, 2015 in an outbreak that is believed to have started at California’s Disneyland theme park in mid-December. The outbreak has expanded to six other states, plus Mexico and Canada.
A procedure called ERCP, or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, which uses a specialized endoscope to deal with ailments of the digestive system, has unwittingly introduced a superbug called CRE, or carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, into at least two patients at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center who died as a result. Five other patients were also exposed to the superbug; 180 more may have been exposed.
In the United States, fear of HIV has recently faded as treatments and awareness have caused some complacency with the disease. But a new, more virulent strain seems to be upsetting that complacency, and the source of this stronger version of the deadly virus is Cuba, the very nation that Obama wants opened up to American tourism.
Measles continues to spread internationally, with ten cases now appearing in Quebec, Canada connected to a California outbreak, according to a Feb. 11 report by the Public Health Department (PHD) of the Agency for Health and Social Services of Lanaudière.
Four-month-old baby Mobius Loop is up to date on American Academy of Pediatrics recommended vaccinations, but at his tender age, it’s too early for his measles shot. It was during a January 18 family trip to Disneyland that Baby Mobius is believed to have contracted the highly contagious measles disease–and his mother posted her “mixed feelings” online.
Hollywood’s famous Chinese Theater hosted the timely red carpet premiere of the anti-vaccine film Trace Amounts on Wednesday evening.The film challenges the safety of vaccines that may contain the potentially harmful preservative thimerosal. The film’s release comes in the middle of a measles outbreak that has put the debate over childhood vaccinations in the national spotlight.
Since the Disneyland measles outbreak began in December, public health officials have called upon parents to vaccinate to vaccinate their under-immunized children and for adults to obtain a booster shot to protect against the disease. Since then, the coastal, liberal enclave of Santa Cruz has seen a significant uptick in vaccination appointments, according to local news station KSBW and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
Disney stockholders can breathe a little bit easier. On Tuesday, CEO Bob Iger said that attendance at Disneyland theme parks in California has not been affected in the wake of a measles outbreak that is thought to have originated at the parks.
The measles outbreak, originally tracked to Disneyland theme parks in California, has grown to over 100 cases, authorities said on Monday.
A potential explosion of measles could have been triggered by a college student infected with the disease who traveled by train from New York City to northern New York State last Sunday. The student, who attends Bard College, traveled on the 1:20 p.m. train from Penn station to Rhinecliff, N.Y. with a stop in Albany.
The 2014-15 flu season has been a particularly dangerous one across the country, especially for vulnerable elderly patients. Researchers have also found that cities that have either hosted or sent teams to the Super Bowl have experienced an 18 percent higher death rate of elderly flu patients than other cities.
With 84 cases already identified in the first month of the year, the number of measles cases across the country has almost outstripped what has become the usual number of cases in a year, according to reports.
Thursday’s suspected Ebola patient, who was monitored at UC Davis Medical Center Sacramento, tested negative for the virus in results released Friday morning, according to officials from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services, and the medical center.
Many have speculated, but now a top federal health official is confirming that the outbreak of measles traced to several Disney theme parks was likely caused by a foreign visitor or an American who had recently returned from a trip outside the country.
A patient showing “symptoms consistent with Ebola infection” was being treated Thursday at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
California and California-related cases of the measles now total 87, excluding any outside the state that have no known link to the December Magic Kingdom outbreak. California Department of Public Health officials have updated the known extent of the spread that now spans seven states and Mexico.
Public health officials are raising their measles intervention alert, urging adults to consider a measles vaccine booster as California now reports 59 cases of the disease.
On January 16, The Washington Post (WaPo) reported that guns may serve a defensive purpose—that defensive gun uses may be slightly higher than 3 million each year—but we will not know until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) begin their research into guns as a public health issue.
Health authorities have identified seven more cases of measles traced to an outbreak at the Disney theme parks in California, bringing the number of known cases up to 26.
In a column dated January 10 The Economist (TE) argues that “tougher laws and less driving by young people” under the age of 25 have led to safer streets while a lack of more laws on guns means “death by guns [has] been trending slightly upward.”
The country, especially the Midwest, is being socked with a flu strain that the Centers for Disease Control has rated as “severe” because of the higher-than-average number of cases being reported.
Five deaths have been reported out of 29 Listeria-related illnesses in the United States in a recent outbreak that has been linked to Happy Apple Brand Caramel Apples produced out of Orosi, California and Union, Missouri. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, “Listeria can cause a serious, life-threatening illness.”
On the day before Christmas, the United States got a reminder of a danger many had probably started to forget: the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced a lab technician in Atlanta was being monitored for possible exposure to Ebola.
