Nikki Sommer, a nurse with Key West Surgical Group, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM for Medical Matters this morning.
Measles is making a comeback. It’s a viral disease that causes fever and a rash and it’s highly contagious.
Sommer said, “It could last up to seven to 10 days. It can typically develop eight to 12 days after you’re exposed, and sometimes it takes up to 21 days for you to develop any symptoms after the exposure.”
It is an airborne disease, spread by sharing drinks, kissing, shaking hands, holding hands, hugging someone, touching a surface. It can also be fatal.
Sommer said, “Harvard Health published the following, measles is just not another cold. A host of complications can develop, including encephalitis, which is brain inflammation. It can lead to seizures, hearing loss, or even intellectual disability in a child, pneumonia, eye inflammation that can occasionally cause vision loss, poor pregnancy outcomes. So if you get it while you’re pregnant, you can have complications while you’re pregnant, even including miscarriage and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare and fatal, lethal disease of the brain that can develop years after the initial diagnosis of measles.”
The latest outbreak is 79 cases and one in nine have required hospitalization. It can suppress your immune system as well.
Sommer said, “The antibodies in your immune system will later recognize and help mount against I guess they call them intruders. This is from Harvard Medical but measles virus wipes out up to three quarters of antibodies protecting against other viruses or bacteria.”
The MMR vaccine is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old. The second vaccine is between four and six years old.
Sommer said, “If you had your vaccine, you most likely are okay against the measles outbreak. What’s concerning is now, when we talked about it last year, it was at the beginning of 2024 and there were a total of 285 cases reported. Right now, as of this week, there are already 700 confirmed cases in six states, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, of course, this all started in Texas, in that Mennonite community, which is an unvaccinated community. They have had two children die from measles, and there is a new reported death of a male, an adult male, he was unvaccinated in New Mexico.”
There is a lab test for measles.
Sommer said, “If you had the live measles vaccine in the 1960s, you don’t need to be revaccinated, but they’re recommending if you were immunized before 1968, was an ineffective measles vaccine, you should be revaccinated with at least one dose.”
There’s no specific treatment for measles.
Sommer said, “The problem with it, it suppresses your immune system, so it makes you susceptible to other things, like the flu or pneumonia. Pneumonia can be bacterial so if you end up with a bacterial pneumonia, then yes, they would give you antibiotics to treat the bacterial pneumonia or the bacterial infection, but most viruses, there is no treatment for it. So other than just alleviating the symptoms and monitoring for any type of light threatening symptoms like shortness of breath or trouble breathing.”
Can herd immunity occur in communities with high vaccination rates?
Sommer said, “Communities that have high vaccination rates of 95%, that creates herd immunity, so people are more protected in that situation. In the community in Texas, for example, they’re not vaccinated. So that is what caused this outbreak there, is that there is no herd immunity because they are not vaccinated.”
Key West Surgical Group has brought in a third laser that is used in esthetics.
Sommer said, “The Laser MD Ultra, which I’m excited about. I know we talked about, we have a laser that does hair removal, and now we have one that does hair regeneration. So I’m really excited. We could take it away, we could put it back. They help re stimulate your collagen and elastin, so you can actually try and make your skin more taut. Unfortunately, we can’t achieve the results of plastic surgery like a face lift, but we can definitely try and slow down the signs of aging if that is something you’re interested in.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keywestsurgicalgroup.com/