{"id":5910,"date":"2024-02-20T07:27:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T13:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=5910"},"modified":"2024-02-20T07:27:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T13:27:14","slug":"measles-infections-pose-far-more-risks-than-most-realize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2024\/02\/20\/measles-infections-pose-far-more-risks-than-most-realize\/","title":{"rendered":"Measles infections pose far more risks than most realize"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NBC News<\/a> The virus can cause \u201cimmune amnesia,\u201d leaving patients more vulnerable to other infections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erica Finkelstein-Parker planned her daughter\u2019s 8th birthday party with love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Emmalee adored airplanes, Finkelstein-Parker chose the theme \u201cFlying High with Emmalee.\u201d Finkelstein-Parker filled nearly two dozen brightly colored goody bags for Emmalee\u2019s friends \u2014 one for every child in her class, so no one would feel left out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later, the treat bags remained unopened in Finkelstein-Parker\u2019s bedroom, reminders of a birthday party that was never held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emmalee, who developed a\u00a0rare complication of measles<\/a>\u00a0that can strike years after infection, spent her 8th birthday in hospice care at her family\u2019s home. Her parents adopted Emmalee from an orphanage in India when she was 2 \u00bd years old. The orphanage staff didn\u2019t tell them she had been infected with measles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are some things that a parent should never have to do,\u201d said Finkelstein-Parker, of Littlestown, Pennsylvania. \u201cI had to call the birthday venue and explain that we were canceling the party because our daughter was dying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emmalee died on Jan. 2, 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople think these diseases are ancient history, but they\u2019re still around,\u201d said Finkelstein-Parker. \u201cMeasles is a stealth virus. It may look like it has cleared your body, but it can hide in your nervous system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The massive resurgence of measles<\/a> around the world \u2014 attributed to pandemic-related declines in immunizations<\/a> and rising rates of vaccine hesitancy<\/a> among parents \u2014 raises the risk of more serious complications and deaths, said Dr. James Cherry, a professor of pediatrics and an infectious disease expert at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past two months, doctors in the U.S. have diagnosed dozens of measles cases related to unvaccinated travelers who arrived at international airports, then exposed others at hospitals and day care centers<\/a>. State health departments have reported measles cases in California<\/a>, Georgia<\/a>, Missouri<\/a>, New Jersey<\/a>, Pennsylvania<\/a>, Washington<\/a>, Ohio<\/a>, Maryland<\/a> and Minnesota. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning<\/a> to health providers, warning them to be on alert for more cases.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NBC News The virus can cause \u201cimmune amnesia,\u201d leaving patients more vulnerable to other infections. Erica Finkelstein-Parker planned her daughter\u2019s 8th birthday party with love. Because Emmalee adored airplanes, Finkelstein-Parker chose the theme \u201cFlying High with Emmalee.\u201d Finkelstein-Parker filled nearly two dozen brightly colored goody bags for Emmalee\u2019s friends \u2014 one for every child in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5911,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5910\/revisions\/5911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}