The Measles

[Walkabout]

only one new case of measles in Illinois has been reported , bringing the total to 14. Hopefully no new cases will appear and this outbreak will officially be over.

[Libby]

One thing that annoys me is when diseases such a measles are regarded as "childhood diseases". Although that's an accurate description, as most childhood diseases happen mostly to children, there's an assumption that because it's a kiddy's disease it's mostly harmless. Sometimes they are, and sometimes they're deadly. But we've forgotten about the "deadly" bit, thanks to vaccination programmes.

And it's perfectly possible for adults to get "childhood diseases" - as happened to the Native American population when Europeans arrived. If more people avoid vaccination, for whatever reason, there will be an increasing, similarly unprotected, population at risk.

Along with the increased risk because of human population movement, partly through tourism and partly from displacement of people from war areas, there's also a growing risk because of climate change. As temperatures increase (even if only by a little), plants migrate away from the equatorial regions, taking their insects with them, followed by the animals that graze on them. Those insects and ticks are often the vectors of disease.

[Beerbelch]

BEER----> I'm getting itchy just talking about measles.

BELCH