Vaccinemodstand and more countries the passive approach to mæslingeudbrud now get the UN’s aid society, Unicef, to sound the alarm.
According to figures from the world health Organization (WHO) is the number of mæslingesmittede increased by 50 percent in 2018. It has cost up to 136.000 people. Many of the infected are children.
And according to Unicef it is a global sign of inadequacy, that the whole of 98 countries have registered an increase in the number of infected in 2018.
– It is a sharp opvågningskald. We have a safe, effective, and even inexpensive vaccine against this highly contagious disease. A vaccine that has saved almost a million lives over the past two decades, says Henrietta Fore, director of the Unicef.
Just ten countries are responsible for three-quarters of the increase in cases of measles worldwide, says the organisation.
It is France, which has seen a sharp increase in the number of children who become infected with measles. Also in Ukraine, the Philippines and Brazil have seen large increases.
Measles is far more contagious than diseases like tuberculosis and ebola, but it is easy to prevent, since mæslingevaccinen is inexpensive to produce and available worldwide.
the WHO declared last month that vaccineskepsis was on the top ten of the largest threats to global health.
An increasing number of people are questioning the health benefits of vaccinations, and several have without any form of scientific evidence pointed to a connection between vaccines and autism in children.
Henrietta Fore stresses that scepticism against vaccines is unfounded, and that the lack of vaccination in several parts of the world have fatal consequences.
– All of these cases can be prevented, and yet children are infected even in parts of the world where there simply is no excuse.
– All too often, is the real disease of misinformation, mistrust, and inaction, says Unicef director.
How to be treated measles
If you know that you have been exposed to the measles virus without to be immune, so one should respond quickly, since it is possible to make a preventive treatment.
– If you are quick enough, you can actually be vaccinated three days after infection and avoid getting the disease.
– Then you can still give it, you call the ‘passive protection’, that is antibodies. Immunoglobulin, as it is called. They contain protection against measles, and them you can provide up to six hours after, say afdelingslæge at Statens Serum Institut Peter Henrik Andersen.
the Symptoms of measles are reminiscent of the symptoms of a violent cold, where you get a high fever, red eyes, and the nose runs. Later in the disease develop the characteristic rash.
There is no treatment for measles, when the disease is in the outbreak. You should keep the sick in isolation the first week to reduce the smittefaren, and it is important to get enough liquid. There can be given treatment that relieves symptoms, such as cough.
Vaccination provides lifelong protection against measles.
Source: Statens Serum Institut.
So dangerous is measles
Measles is an extremely contagious airborne virus. It is transmitted through coughing. Viruspartiklerne can be stuck for up to two hours, and you can be infected without even having been in the vicinity of the infected person.
the Disease is shown by fever, colds and hypersensitivity to light. Three to four days seen a rash that starts in face and moves down over the body.
One out of 15 mæslingesmittede get otitis.
Pneumonia is a out of the 25 with measles.
Encephalitis will be seen in 1 out of 2500 with measles.
Blodplademangel will be seen in 1 out of 3500 with measles.
In Denmark, will have children thanks to the good hospitalsforhold die of measles.
Nevertheless, measles cost a out of 2,500-3,000 for life. The mortality rate is significantly higher in the developing countries: Here, the door between one and five out of 100 mæslingetilfælde.
