measles

/Tag:measles

Dodging the Measles Bullet?

By | May 1st, 2014|Preparedness|

You might remember from a few weeks ago that a single patient exposed over 1,000 Arizonans to measles.  Because measles is highly infectious and 90% of unvaccinated contacts become infected, Public Health worked overtime to identify and interview suspected cases.   Health care facilities were placed on heightened alert.  The State Laboratory rushed testing of suspicious [...]

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More Arizona Parents Choosing Not to Vaccinate their Kids

By | April 11th, 2014|Preparedness|

As I mentioned in a blog post last year, more AZ parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids- using “personal exemptions” when they enroll their kids in school.  This has jeopardized our immunization rates enough that this week’s measles case in Maricopa County could spread.  We’ll know in a couple of weeks. Vaccinating yourself and [...]

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Detecting Scary Diseases

By | February 25th, 2014|Prevention|

Disease outbreaks can come from anywhere. In Arizona we’ve had illness from contaminated pomegranate seeds from the Middle East, measles from Switzerland, salmonellosis from African dwarf frogs and cholera from Peru. More recently a Canadian traveler died of H5N1 after she returned home from a long trip to China. An exotic disease from another country is only [...]

Sochi Public Health Tips

By | January 13th, 2014|Preparedness, Prevention|

I know that some of you out there are going to attend  the Winter Olympics - so I put together the blog post below over the weekend for folks that might be going.  Here goes in case you’re interested: Let’s start with the good news first- then the health tips…  Sochi Games to be Smoke Free- Russians [...]

Measles & International Travel

By | April 30th, 2013|Preparedness, Prevention|

Guest Blog from Ken Komatsu, State Epidemiologist With over 1 billion people crossing international borders each year, vaccine preventable diseases not usually found in Arizona, can arrive at any time.  Earlier this month a young child from Pima County became ill with a rash illness while visiting Asia.  This region of the world has had [...]

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19 Kids to Miss a Month of School

By | February 15th, 2012|Preparedness, Prevention|

A 4th grader in Gilbert was diagnosed with the mumps last week. Had all the staff and faculty in the school been previously vaccinated for the mumps at the school- it really would’ve been no big deal. But, it turns out that 19 kids at the school hadn’t been vaccinated for the mumps (mainly because [...]

Maricopa County Measles Case

By | February 15th, 2011|Preparedness|

Maricopa County Department of Public Health (and our Lab) confirmed a case of measles in an Arizona resident this week.  Measles is one of the most communicable diseases there is (next to chicken pox).  It’s a viral disease of the upper respiratory system that’s spread in the air via droplets.  Measles starts with a fever [...]

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Lancet Withdraws 12 Year Old Flawed Autism Article

By | February 3rd, 2010|General, Preparedness|

An article published in the journal Lancet nearly 12 years ago set the public health world on fire.  The article published by Wakefield and 12 other authors suggested that they had found a link between the MMR (measles mumps rubella) vaccine and autism and bowel disease.  Since that time, a great deal of research has [...]