VOA常速英语:Measles Can be Deadly, But is Preventable

Many people think measles is just another childhood disease, a rash, a fever, and it’s gone.

But top doctors say otherwise.

The measles is not a trivial disease. If you have a measles outbreak, a proportion of people are gonna have serious complications.

Measles can cause permanent brain damage, it can leave a child blind or deaf, measles also kills.

In the pre-vaccine era before we had the measles outbreaks,we had about 500 kids die every year of measles in the U.S. and 50,000 hospitalizations."

Most people get better within two weeks, but the effects can linger.

“If a child acquires measles, even in a country like the United States, he can have complication of measles that can be deadly,like pneumonia, or he can have like, a reduction in immune functions, he can also have malnutrition for quite some time after,so the child becomes weaker and more susceptible to other infections.”

All it takes is a sneeze or a cough to spread the virus in tiny droplets through the air.

One person can infect up to 18 others, each one of those people infects another dozen or so, and it spreads from there.

Ninety percent of those exposed will get the virus, unless they have been vaccinated or have already had measles.

The measles virus can linger on doorknobs, tables, any surface for up to two hours, touch it and you’re exposed.

“It’s incredibly contagious, and the kids who get measles are really, really sick.I mean, it’s a pretty big deal to get measles.”

The first signs of measles are a runny nose, cough and a fever followed by a red rash.Measles is not just a childhood disease; adults can get it, too.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked doctors to work with parents who are reluctant to get their children vaccinated.

Dr. Hope Scott at Reston Town Center Pediatrics in Virginia says her practice will allow parents to set up a delayed vaccine schedule, to a point.

“We’ll work with them probably till about age 2 or so.And if it’s not vaccinated by then and don’t have a plan to do it and aren’t acting on the plan,we will at that point ask them to leave the practice.”

The single best way to prevent measles is to get two doses of the measles vaccine.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends children get the first dose after their first birthday and the second when they are between 4 and 6 years old.The two doses together provide 97 percent protection against measles.

Carol Pearson, VOA news, Washington.