The measles

Trinity Smith

 

      In the 1950s the measles was something that took over the United States as a deadly epidemic. The measles is a highly contagious respiratory infection that spreads throughout the body. The measles can be caught by  direct contact, sneezing, and coughing. Symptoms include flu like symptoms with the addition of a rash all over the body. Symptoms show a week to two weeks after being infected with the virus. The measles had more than 500 reported deaths in the United States. The measles had a large impact over the United States due to the deaths and illnesses that swept the nation.

     The measles swept the nation as one of the most deadliest epidemics in US history. During this time period more than 95% of people were infected with measles by the time they were 15 years old. In the 1950’s there were more than 500,000 cases of measles leaving more than 500 people with the disease dead. At the time there was no cure for this deadly disease and no vaccine was created to stop the spread of the measles which led to the spread of the disease. To prevent the spread of measles the person that had it would have to be quarantined so that the disease was not spread to others.

     In the graph created by Lawerence Solomon it shows the mortality rates from when the measles first came about until after the vaccine was created to prevent measles. The vaccine was created in 1963 which was a way to prevent the spread of the measles. If you were injected with the vaccine after 1967 then you were considered immune to the vaccine for life. The graph shows a significant drop in the mortality rates after the vaccine was created which was a life saver for many people. The graph is designed for an audience of people that want to learn more about the mortality rates of the measles in the 1900s. Without the vaccine there would not have been a way to cure the measles at the time because they were not as advanced in medicine as it is today. Some families also did not have the money to get the vaccine ,so some children died due to the lack of money for health care.

   

An article that was published in the CDC explains the measles and its’ when it was licensed in the United States. The vaccine was licensed in the United States in 1963. The article also explains when children need to get the vaccine. At first parents were very uneasy about the vaccine but when it was funded by the government that is when parents decided to get the vaccine for their children. When the vaccine was not originally funded by the government parents did not want their children to get the vaccine because there was not a lot of background information on the vaccine. The government later funded the government which put parents at ease which led for their child to get the vaccine and drop mortality rates of measles.

     Although the measles was a very tragic time period before the vaccine it helped save the lives of many people daily. The impact that the vaccine had at the time was that mothers and fathers were not losing their children due to the deadly disease. Now, measles is a very rare disease in America due to the vaccine that was created that took the vaccine out. In America Children are recommended to get the first dose of the measles vaccine from the age of 12 through 15 months and the second dose when they are between 4 and 6 years old. Due to this shot it takes the chances of children getting measles down by a long shot.

Citations

What does the measles rash look like.Hanna Marton – https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/blog/what-does-measles-rash-look-like

 Impact Of Measles in the United States.A Hinman-W Orenstein-A Bloch-K Bart-D Eddins-R Amler-C Kirby – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6878996

Lawrence Solomon: The Untold Story Of Measles. Lawrence Solomon – https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/lawrence-solomon-the-untold-story-of-measles

Measles (for Parents). Michelle Tellado – https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/measles.html

The college of Physicians of Philadelphia. “Vaccines for Adults.” The History ofVaccines. Last modified January 17, 2018. Accessed September 11, 2019.     https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/vaccines-adults.