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Comments:A measles outbreak that has spread over a swath of West Texas, killing one child, shows no signs of slowing, according to data released on Tuesday by state health officials. The Texas Department of Health reported that since late January, nearly 160 people have contracted measles — 20 more cases than reported on Friday — and 22 have been hospitalized.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Tuesday that it would send some of its “disease detectives” to Texas, one of the first steps the new administration has taken to help manage the outbreak. The news comes amid criticism of federal officials for underplaying the need for immunizations with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, one of the most important tools in quelling an outbreak.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, on Sunday described vaccination as a personal decision.
In a prerecorded interview that aired on Fox News on Tuesday, he said that the federal government was shipping doses of vitamin A to Gaines County, in West Texas, and helping to arrange ambulance rides. Mr. Kennedy did not mention vaccination.
Doctors had seen “very, very good results,” Mr. Kennedy claimed, by treating measles cases in Texas with a steroid, budesonide; an antibiotic called clarithromycin; and cod liver oil, which he said had high levels of vitamin A and vitamin D.
While physicians sometimes administer doses of vitamin A to treat children with severe measles cases, cod liver oil is “by no means” an evidence-based treatment, said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases. Dr. O’Leary added that he had never heard of a physician using the supplement against measles.
In comments that seemed to refer to conventional safeguards against measles, Mr. Kennedy said, “We’re going to be honest with the American people for the first time in history about what actually — about all of the tests and all of the studies, about what we know, what we don’t know.”
“We’re going to tell them, and that’s going to anger some people who want an ideological approach to public health.”
In Texas, measles cases have been confirmed in nine counties, many of which have vaccination rates below federal recommendations.
About one in five people who catch measles will be hospitalized, according to the C.D.C.
The virus also weakens the immune system in the long term, making its host more susceptible to future infections. A 2015 study found that before the M.M.R. vaccine was widely available, measles may have been responsible for up to half of all infectious disease deaths in children.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
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