Doctor: Vaccine is the cure to dangerous measles virus

Dr. Todd Pullin says the measles vaccine is safe and effective.
But the Eunice pediatrician said he leaves it to parents to decide whether or not to have their children vaccinated.
“I don’t have a big chunk of my patients that object to vaccines,” he said at Wednesday Eunice Rotary Club meeting. “There are a few.”
For those few with doubts about vaccinations, he urges them to be well-informed.
“Some places will tell you anything, so you have to be careful,” he said.
Measles has a 90 percent transmission rate -- nine of 10 people without immunity to the virus will become infected if exposed, he said.
“You can see this whole outbreak really can spread like wildfire,” he said.
Measles may begin with a cough, runny nose, pink eye and then a few days later white spots can develop in the mouth. A fever and rash may begin within three to five days.
“So, you see all of this other stuff that starts off where it looks like any other kind of virus,” he said.
“The thing about measles that is striking is how contagious it is,” Pullin said. “It is usually spread airborne. Coughing, sneezing and the little droplets that a person coughs or sneezes goes and hangs in the air. Those droplets are infected for up to two hours either in the air or on surfaces.”
Pullin said the complications from measles can range from ear infections and diarrhea to pneumonia and death.
About 20 percent of measles victims will get the ear infection and diarrhea. About 5 percent get pneumonia and one in a 1,000 victims get encephalitis.
And, there are cases where the measles complications arise years later with encephalitis, he said.
Before the measles vaccine was released in 1963 nearly every person in the United States was infected with the virus, he said.
There were up to 4 million cases of measles and up to 500 deaths from the virus each year before the vaccine arrived, he said. The virus would send 48,000 people to the hospital each year in the pre-vaccine days.
Measles was declared no longer endemic in the nation in 2000, he said.
Measles now is imported into the U.S. primarily from England, Germany, France and the Philippines, he said.
Worldwide there are about 20 million cases of measles annually, he said.
The recommendation for the vaccine is that it be given in the first 12 to 15 months and again at 4 to 6 years. The first vaccine confers a 93 percent immunity and the second boosts that to 97 percent, he said.
A study linking the vaccine to autism was unfounded, he said.
Measles outbreaks in the United States have become more frequent in recent years.
There were three outbreaks in 2008, 10 in 2011 and 23 in 2014.
Pullin said he has never seen a case of measles in his patients.