Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vocal bomb here. Anyone around in the nineteen sixties
Speaker 1: and earlier knew not to mess with the measles. Measles
Speaker 1: a k A. Rabela is a dangerous and highly contagious
Speaker 1: infectious disease. It was common knowledge back then that if
Speaker 1: you're lucky, measles merely came with a high fever, cough,
Speaker 1: running nose, red watery eyes, and the infections signature angry
Speaker 1: red rash. But if you're not so lucky, you can
Speaker 1: add to that any number of complications. About ten percent
Speaker 1: of measles patients get severe diarrhea and ear infections. More
Speaker 1: dire complications include pneumonia and encephalitis, which is brain swelling
Speaker 1: that can further cause convulsions, deafness, cognitive impairment, and even death.
Speaker 1: Contracting the disease while pregnant can cause premature birth, a
Speaker 1: low birth weight for the baby, and even miscarriage, and
Speaker 1: some people develop a rare and fatal central nervous system
Speaker 1: disease called subacute sclerosing pen encephalitis about seven to ten
Speaker 1: years after they've had measles. Today, however, many people don't
Speaker 1: know much about this terrible disease, which once struck three
Speaker 1: to four million people annually in the U s Alone
Speaker 1: and killed four hundred to five hundred per year. That's
Speaker 1: because in nineteen sixty three, a highly effective vaccine debut
Speaker 1: and measles infections plummeted. Then in nineteen seventy eight, the
Speaker 1: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began working to totally
Speaker 1: eliminate this infectious disease from the United States through widespread
Speaker 1: use of the measles vaccine. It worked. By the year
Speaker 1: two thousand, measles was declared eliminated from the nation. During
Speaker 1: the decades when measles was steadily on the decline, memories
Speaker 1: of the disease and it's many dangers also disappeared. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: measles began showing its ugly red face again in the
Speaker 1: late two thousands and twenty teens, and as of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: it's raging in many parts of the United States, including
Speaker 1: New York State and Washington State. While many of these
Speaker 1: outbreaks occurred because of people with the infection coming into
Speaker 1: the US, one large outbreak in teen that sickened three
Speaker 1: d eighty three people was largely due to an unvaccinated
Speaker 1: group of Amish people. Another outbreak started at Disneyland in
Speaker 1: California in possibly due to someone contracting measles. Overseas, forty
Speaker 1: seven people became sick. The return of measles is concerning enough,
Speaker 1: but in a study showed people who came down with
Speaker 1: measles were at risk for getting a raft of other diseases.
Speaker 1: Their immune systems have developed a sort of amnesia. When
Speaker 1: measles attacks your body, it goes to war with your
Speaker 1: white blood cells. Specifically, it binds to your B and
Speaker 1: T cells then wipes them out. B and T cells
Speaker 1: are highly specialized cells critical to your health. They're the
Speaker 1: ones that recognize infectious germs in your body, then quickly
Speaker 1: multiplied to fight off these unwelcome invaders. A subset of
Speaker 1: your B and T cells also remembers each infection you contract.
Speaker 1: If that kind of bacteria or virus strikes again, they
Speaker 1: recognize it and prompt your immune system to spring into
Speaker 1: action so fast that you probably won't get sick. That's immunity.
Speaker 1: But because measles trashes your white blood cells, it places
Speaker 1: you at high risk of coming to other infections, and
Speaker 1: not just for a few weeks after you get it.
Speaker 1: After mass measles vaccinations of heard in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: childhood deaths from measles plunged, as expected, but so did
Speaker 1: childhood deaths from a host of other infectious diseases. In
Speaker 1: resource poor countries, the drop in childhood death rates post
Speaker 1: measles vaccination was as much as thirty in some of
Speaker 1: the poorest nations. It was a whopping in Researchers began
Speaker 1: to figure out why this is a study with Rees's
Speaker 1: monkeys showed that while the monkeys immune systems began producing
Speaker 1: new B and T cells a month after contracting the measles,
Speaker 1: these new cells only remembered that the monkeys had had
Speaker 1: measles in the past. They didn't recall any of the
Speaker 1: other infections the monkeys it had. Basically, the monkeys immune
Speaker 1: systems had amnesia. This meant the primates would have to
Speaker 1: go through all sorts of illnesses again to regain the
Speaker 1: immunity levels they'd built up since birth, and it appears
Speaker 1: that the same is true for humans. Results of a
Speaker 1: study were published in the journal Science that showed children
Speaker 1: who got the measles and survived were more likely to
Speaker 1: subsequently die from another infectious disease than kids who never
Speaker 1: got the measles. In the four countries studied Denmark, England, Wales,
Speaker 1: and the United States, the children's immune systems all appeared
Speaker 1: to be weakened for two to three years post measles.
Speaker 1: Although the measles vaccine is highly effective, measles remains one
Speaker 1: of the leading causes of death among young children Globally.
Speaker 1: Nearly a hundred and ten thousand people died from measles
Speaker 1: around the world in twenties seventeen, mostly children under the
Speaker 1: age of five. On a more positive note, because increasing
Speaker 1: numbers of kids are receiving the measles vaccination, deaths from
Speaker 1: this infectious disease plunge an incredible eight percent between two
Speaker 1: thousand and twenties seventeen, which quates to the prevention of
Speaker 1: about twenty one point one million deaths. Measles is still
Speaker 1: common in impoverished countries, especially those in African Asia, where
Speaker 1: vaccination levels are lower. Furthermore, outbreaks are specially damaging in
Speaker 1: countries recovering from natural disasters or undergoing violent conflicts. In
Speaker 1: these situations, the administration of vaccines is often interrupted. Some
Speaker 1: more people are at risk of contracting the disease, and
Speaker 1: when many people end up in cramped quarters such as
Speaker 1: refugee camps or emergency shelters, the situation is ripe for
Speaker 1: an outbreak. Since measles spread so easily, transmitted mainly through coughing, sneezing,
Speaker 1: and close personal contact, virus can survive for up to
Speaker 1: two hours in the air and on surfaces. This means
Speaker 1: an infected person can cough in one room then leave,
Speaker 1: and a second person walking into the room two hours
Speaker 1: later can contract measles simply by breathing in the contaminated air.
Speaker 1: With a highly effective and reasonably priced vaccine available, the
Speaker 1: fight continues to eradicate measles from the earth. There's a
Speaker 1: plan in place crafted by the Measles and Rebella Initiative,
Speaker 1: a cooperative effort between the American Red Cross Centers for
Speaker 1: Disease Control and Prevention UNIS of the United Nations Foundation
Speaker 1: and the World Health Organization, but it partially depends on
Speaker 1: populations in affluent countries to do their research and not
Speaker 1: refuse vaccination due to misinformation. The hypothesis of the vaccines
Speaker 1: cause autism has been disproven by study after study. The
Speaker 1: original study that made the claim that they do was
Speaker 1: discredited and eventually retracted. Vaccines are safe except for people
Speaker 1: with specific allergies, or with compromised immune systems, or very
Speaker 1: particular other conditions. That's why everyone who can get vaccinated
Speaker 1: should not only to protect ourselves, but to protect those
Speaker 1: who are unable to receive vaccines and thus are vulnerable
Speaker 1: to infection. If you're not sure whether you've been vaccinated
Speaker 1: against the measles, you can try to find your vaccination
Speaker 1: records among any documents saved from your childhood, or talk
Speaker 1: to your doctor. They can check to see whether you've
Speaker 1: got immunity with a simple blood test, or you can
Speaker 1: simply get the vaccine. You'll be sure you're covered, and
Speaker 1: there's no harm in repeating it in the case that
Speaker 1: you did receive it as a child. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Melanie rad Zekie McManus and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more in this and lots of other
Speaker 1: public health topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
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