Many Older Adults May Need Measles Booster

Health Senior Wellness

Over the past couple of months, America has seen a large measles outbreak in many locations. Some areas have been hit especially hard, forcing the closing of some schools with over a hundred students being out sick. The measles outbreak has forced politicians and school boards to mandate that all students receive a measles vaccine or they will not be allowed in school.

I recall having measles as a boy and don’t remember it being that bad, but in some cases, it can be quite serious.

According to the Mayo Clinic:

“Measles is a childhood infection caused by a virus. Once quite common, measles can now almost always be prevented with a vaccine.”

“Also called rubeola, measles can be serious and even fatal for small children. While death rates have been falling worldwide as more children receive the measles vaccine, the disease still kills more than 100,000 people a year, most under the age of 5.” [emphasis mine]

“As a result of high vaccination rates in general, measles hasn’t been widespread in the United States for more than a decade. The United States averaged about 60 cases of measles a year from 2000 to 2010, but the average number of cases jumped to 205 a year in recent years. Most of these cases originate outside the country and occurred in people who were unvaccinated or who didn’t know whether or not they had been vaccinated.”

After being exposed to the virus, it usually takes about 10-14 days for symptoms to appear. The symptoms of measles include fever, dry cough, runny nose, sore throat, conjunctivitis, a skin rash of flat red blotches and tiny spots in the mouth that are white with a bluish center.

Measles is highly contagious. It can be passed on to others from about 4 days prior to the appearance of the skin rash until about 4 days after the skin rash disappears.

Measles can cause secondary health problems that include ear infections, croup, laryngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, problems during pregnancy and even encephalitis.

Not only are unvaccinated people susceptible of contracting measles but so are people with a vitamin A deficiency (which includes some older folks).

With this year’s measles outbreak being the worst in many years, health experts are finding that people who received measles vaccines in the 60s may need to get a booster vaccine, as reported:

“Some adults who were vaccinated against the measles in the 1960s may only have partial immunity. CBS News’ Dr. David Agus explained on ‘CBS This Morning’ Friday why people who were vaccinated from 1963 to 1968 should see their doctor about potentially getting a booster shot.”

“‘Starting in 1963 we started vaccinating,’ Agus said. ‘The first five years of the vaccine — some batches of it were not very good. None of us really know which batch we got’.”

“‘So you can either go to your doctor and say, ‘Draw a blood test and see if I have a high enough level,’ or just get the shot,’ he said. ‘By the way, it’s a lot cheaper to just get the shot. So people who were vaccinated from 1963 to 1968 — that needs to happen’.”

“According to Agus, those who were born before 1957 were most likely exposed to measles, meaning 95-98 percent of them have enough antibodies to fight the disease. From 1968 to 1989 doctors gave only one shot, meaning immunity among those people may be a little lower than those who received two shots.”

Consequently, a number of older adults who either never contracted measles as a child or who had the early one-shot vaccine, may need to have a blood test to determine if they need a measles booster. Like they say, better safe than sorry.

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