Adventure Doc
keeping you healthy for life's adventures
Erik McLaughlin MD, MPH
Affiliates
MEASLES
Basics:
Also known as Rubeola, this is a paramyxovirus that kills more than 2 million deaths per year, mostly all children. This disease is closely associated with malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency. Produces the characteristic rash that starts on head/face and spreads downwards. The triad of cough, coryza and conjunctivits are well documented and known. Koplick’s spots in the mouth are also seen in 40% of cases. Later manifestations of the disease include subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.
CHOLERA / DIARRHEA
DISPLACED
POPULATIONS
HIV / AIDS
MALNUTRITION
MEASLES
Location:
worldwide, most all deaths occur in developing nations
POLIO
TUBERCULOSIS
Transmission/ Incubation:
Highly contagious and transmitted via respiratory droplets. Incubation is generally 5-10 days.
Prevention:
This is a vaccine preventable disease. The MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine is commonly given in the developed world.
Diagnosis:
A simple titer test for the virus should show a 4 fold rise in level.
Treatment:
Supportive, correct vitamin and nutritional defects
PRODUCT REVIEWS
Due to reasons of poor nutrition and vitamin A deficiency, this disease is 10-1000 times more likely to kill a child in a developing nation.
Robbins Pathologic basis of Disease,
5th edition
The WHO and UNICEF has been working hard to reduce deaths. Mortality from measles is down from “873 000 in 1999 to an estimated 345 000 in 2005. This 60 per cent reduction has not only met but surpassed a global goal to reduce measles deaths by 50% by 2005, compared with 1999 figures.”
Source: WHO
FOUR OBJECTIVES
The WHO strategy for attempting to eliminate measles:
1
provide every child with a dose of measles vaccine at nine months of age or shortly thereafter;
2
give all children from nine months to 15 years of age a second opportunity for measles immunization;
3
establish effective surveillance; and immunization;
4
improve clinical management of cases, including vitamin A supplementation.
Using this strategy, measles has been eliminated from the WHO Region of the Americas. Three other WHO regions (European, Western Pacific and Eastern Mediterranean) have also set regional measles elimination goals.
Measles Rash
In developing countries, 1-5% of children with measles die from complications of the disease. This death rate may be as high as 30% among people who are displaced. The disease can also lead to severe health complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis, diarrhoea and blindness.
Source: WHO
Learn more:
CHOLERA/DIARRHEA
DISPLACED PERSONS
MALNUTRITION
MEASLES
POLIO
TUBERCULOSIS
