Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-281807/
20 HRs agoWorld
Fifteen Years After Autism Panic, a Plague of Measles Erupts
Legions spurned a long-proven vaccine, putting a generation at risk
An outbreak of measles in southwest Wales presents a cautionary tale about the limits of disease control. Measles can quickly cross oceans, setting back progress elsewhere in stopping it.
By Jeanne Whalen, Betsy McKay
PORT TALBOT, Wales?When the telltale rash appeared behind Aleshia Jenkins?s ears, her grandmother knew exactly what caused it: a decision she?d made 15 years earlier.
Ms. Jenkins was an infant in 1998, when this region of southwest Wales was a hotbed of resistance to a vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella. Many here refused the vaccine for their children after a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, suggested it might cause autism and a local newspaper heavily covered the fears. Resistance continued even after the autism link was disproved.
The bill has now come due.
A measles outbreak infected 1,219 people in southwest Wales between November 2012 and early July, compared with 105 cases in all of Wales in 2011...
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Flutrackers coverage of UK Measles outbreak: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=197992
20 HRs agoWorld
Fifteen Years After Autism Panic, a Plague of Measles Erupts
Legions spurned a long-proven vaccine, putting a generation at risk
An outbreak of measles in southwest Wales presents a cautionary tale about the limits of disease control. Measles can quickly cross oceans, setting back progress elsewhere in stopping it.
By Jeanne Whalen, Betsy McKay
PORT TALBOT, Wales?When the telltale rash appeared behind Aleshia Jenkins?s ears, her grandmother knew exactly what caused it: a decision she?d made 15 years earlier.
Ms. Jenkins was an infant in 1998, when this region of southwest Wales was a hotbed of resistance to a vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella. Many here refused the vaccine for their children after a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, suggested it might cause autism and a local newspaper heavily covered the fears. Resistance continued even after the autism link was disproved.
The bill has now come due.
A measles outbreak infected 1,219 people in southwest Wales between November 2012 and early July, compared with 105 cases in all of Wales in 2011...
****************************
Flutrackers coverage of UK Measles outbreak: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=197992