Measles Makes Im­mune Sys­tem More Vul­ner­a­ble

MISHAWKA, IN—Measles, once a rarely en­coun­tered vi­ral in­fec­tion in the United States, is mak­ing a come­back.  

Measles is a vi­ral in­fec­tion which can be im­mu­nized against by re­ceiv­ing the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vac­cine. How­ever, with the alarm­ing trend of par­ents choos­ing not to vac­ci­nate their chil­dren or them­selves, measles has be­come a huge prob­lem. 

Ac­cord­ing to the Amer­i­can So­ci­ety for Mi­cro­bi­ol­ogy, 90% of ex­posed and un­vac­ci­nated peo­ple will con­tract the virus and be­come car­ri­ers and more than likely in­fected to the point of ill­ness. The mi­crobe of the virus is likely to linger in an in­fected room for two hours. 

The usual dan­gers of be­ing in­fected by the measles virus in­clude high fever and se­vere rash. But measles also causes the im­mune sys­tem to for­get what in­fec­tions it has faced be­fore.   

Measles causes the body to for­get how to fight viruses, bac­te­ria and other im­mune threats. This is very dan­ger­ous as the body is forced to re­learn how to fight dis­eases.  

The best way of avoid­ing this ill­ness is to get vac­ci­nated. Ac­cord­ing to the CDC, the measles vac­cine is 97% ef­fec­tive at pre­vent­ing con­tract­ing the measles virus. This vac­cine is safe and ef­fec­tive and can be ob­tained at a lo­cal doc­tor’s of­fice.