I think the Disneyland outbreak clearly has brought this issue to everyone’s forceful attention, and it’s got to be recognized how fragile was our triumph in eliminating measles from the United States, which we had been successful at doing. William Schaffner More Quotes by William Schaffner More Quotes From William Schaffner You are contagious before you are ill and during the illness, but undoubtedly people have the virus in their intestinal tract who never get ill. William Schaffner health-news Measles is the most highly infectious virus that we know of and can be transmitted fairly readily to susceptible individuals, the measles virus can hover in the air and be infectious for hours afterward. William Schaffner top-news When you are in the developing world, there’s an old rule. Avoid salads, regarding everything else, make sure before you eat it, it’s heated. William Schaffner health Those are the kinds of things that can happen to people when you put on a little mileage over the years, both of the leading candidates are over 65 years of age. It wasn’t so long ago that once you reached your 65th birthday, that’s the time you retired — it wasn’t the time you took one of the most strenuous positions you could think of. William Schaffner health ACIP decided it could not in good conscience recommend the use of this vaccine until the problem had been resolved and new data had been presented. William Schaffner company-news They don't say for how long, that's because they don't know. As it was with Ebola, we're learning as we go. William Schaffner healthcare A little bit of transmission? Sure, but the main engine of transmission that has led this virus to be spread widely throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean is, of course, the mosquito. William Schaffner health-news We don't know whether it can move from a woman to a man. We assume also that if a man can transmit it to a woman, that a man could also transmit it to another man. William Schaffner health-news Our crystal balls are a little cloudy at this point this year, but the H3N2 virus should be the dominant strain this year, while it tends to produce more influenza symptoms, and that's the bad news, the good news is now the vaccine has been modified and it does include H3N2 strain, so it ought to be more on target with the dominant strain of the virus this year. William Schaffner health-news Don't wait, some rather elegant studies have shown it is more effective the earlier you take them and you become less infectious to others. William Schaffner health-news Just for scientific reasons, we had difficulty making an effective vaccine. But that's been successful now, the FDA has approved two different types of meningococcal group B vaccines that have been recently licensed. William Schaffner health-news Particularly if you get into the gray-haired group —that group has all seen measles, they know about it and respect it and even, in a sense, fear it. William Schaffner health It's no wonder that if you're not taught about these things in school, when you become a parent you're scratching your head. William Schaffner health If you had asked me this question five or six years ago, I would have said that the risk was virtually nonexistent, over the past several years, with more and more children being withheld from vaccinations and more and more introduction of measles, I would have said it’s still very low. But today, in the context of the Disneyland outbreak, with it having spread to so many states, I would still acknowledge that the risk is low but it’s much larger than it was, and I would be nervous about that. William Schaffner travel An unvaccinated child will be exposed to risk everywhere, but more so in certain circumstances than in others, for example, more so in Colorado than in Mississippi. But I don’t think you’re going to get a recommendation with a capital R from the CDC or the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. William Schaffner travel And interestingly, it’s Mississippi, last in so many things, that is first in immunization rates, because that state does not allow either personal belief or religious exemptions. William Schaffner travel Measles kills, and it’s also the easiest to catch. It’s the single most transmissible virus we know, and that accounts for the fact that it’s spreading so rapidly among these kids. William Schaffner travel I promise you as the season goes on, there are other strains circulating or will circulate as we get in January and February, although the vaccine is not perfect, it is still pretty good. William Schaffner health Last year was an unfortunate reminder that no one is exempt from flu's most severe consequences. William Schaffner health-news
