The big measles outbreak in Canada in 2011 (750+), where many of those infected had been vaccinated, killed no-one, but 900+, mostly kids, died recently in Madagascar. What I find interesting about Reuter’s coverage of the Madagascar outbreak is the following sentence: “The lack of a big outbreak since 2003 also means many have had no chance to develop immunity.” I daresay the typical age of marriage of women in Madagascar is considerably younger than in the West which could mean a generation has gone without exposure.
We know mothers who’ve had actual measles pass on their immunity as long as they’re breastfeeding, but we also know that the immunity acquired via vaccination, unlike the lifelong immunity acquired via normal exposure, fades over time and that measles-vaccinated individuals can shed the virus potentially infecting others.
I’m left wondering if Madagascars’s third world conditions combined with a lack of maternal immunity due to non-exposure for 16 years (and therefore lack of maternal protection of suckling babes) and possible shedding from vaccination attempts was behind the high number of deaths in this population.
There is no doubt those infected in the West suffer few fatalities because of good nutrition and quality of healthcare. It is established, for example, that inadequate levels of vitamin A increase measles death rates which is why vitamin A is added to the vaccine. It raises the question of whether it truly is smarter, at least in the West, to allow the wild virus to do its thing and maximise generational immunity, and in developing countries without immunity to focus primarily on nutrition and healthcare and use vaccinations with extreme care lest they cause the very outbreaks and deaths they aim to prevent, and with the aim of bringing the population to the point where natural measles outbreaks are as harmless there as they are in the West.
I might have watched this when I was a kid, don’t remember. But a month ago I was trying to convey our attitude, way back then, toward the measles. It was pretty much as depicted in this tv episode.
Defense.gov News Photo 110426-A-7597S-183: U.S. Special Operations service members with Special Operations Task Force South board two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters following a clearing operation in Panjwa'i district in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, on April 25, 2011. Source: Wikimedia.
The big measles outbreak in Canada in 2011 (750+), where many of those infected had been vaccinated, killed no-one, but 900+, mostly kids, died recently in Madagascar. What I find interesting about Reuter’s coverage of the Madagascar outbreak is the following sentence: “The lack of a big outbreak since 2003 also means many have had no chance to develop immunity.” I daresay the typical age of marriage of women in Madagascar is considerably younger than in the West which could mean a generation has gone without exposure.
We know mothers who’ve had actual measles pass on their immunity as long as they’re breastfeeding, but we also know that the immunity acquired via vaccination, unlike the lifelong immunity acquired via normal exposure, fades over time and that measles-vaccinated individuals can shed the virus potentially infecting others.
I’m left wondering if Madagascars’s third world conditions combined with a lack of maternal immunity due to non-exposure for 16 years (and therefore lack of maternal protection of suckling babes) and possible shedding from vaccination attempts was behind the high number of deaths in this population.
There is no doubt those infected in the West suffer few fatalities because of good nutrition and quality of healthcare. It is established, for example, that inadequate levels of vitamin A increase measles death rates which is why vitamin A is added to the vaccine. It raises the question of whether it truly is smarter, at least in the West, to allow the wild virus to do its thing and maximise generational immunity, and in developing countries without immunity to focus primarily on nutrition and healthcare and use vaccinations with extreme care lest they cause the very outbreaks and deaths they aim to prevent, and with the aim of bringing the population to the point where natural measles outbreaks are as harmless there as they are in the West.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-madagascar-measles-idUSKCN1Q3246
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/207/6/990/898747
I might have watched this when I was a kid, don’t remember. But a month ago I was trying to convey our attitude, way back then, toward the measles. It was pretty much as depicted in this tv episode.