CLEARWATER, Fla. – A Pinellas County hospital affected person is urging the neighborhood to be alert following a current alarming name telling her she’d been uncovered to measles.
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Courtney Fellows mentioned she checked herself into the emergency room at Baycare Well being’s Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater on March 17. She mentioned she acquired a name from the Florida Division of Well being 5 days later.
READ: Measles: Your questions answered
“They mentioned, ‘whenever you had been on the E.R. on this present day, you had been uncovered to the measles,’” Fellows mentioned. “It was a bit of scary at first simply fascinated with the truth that it might have been just like the particular person sitting proper subsequent to me, and I would not have identified.”
Fellows mentioned she’s vaccinated however was nonetheless shaken by the dialog.
“It is a bit of aggravating. I reside with my buddy’s household and his mother checks my head for a rash day-after-day, as a result of she is a bit of nervous about it,” she mentioned, including, “I undoubtedly really feel higher understanding that I’ve each [doses] of the vaccines.”
The opposite aspect:
Baycare mentioned it reviews any measles circumstances to the Florida Well being Division, which, to date, solely reveals one confirmed case in Miami-Dade County. In a press release to FOX 13, a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Well being in Pinellas County mentioned, “we do not touch upon an ongoing epidemiological investigation.”
Whereas it is unclear what occurred on this scenario, docs at USF Well being mentioned this illness ought to have everybody’s consideration.
What they’re saying:
“I am desperately involved about it. This can be a very severe illness,” mentioned Dr. John Sinnott, the chairman of USF Well being’s Division of Inner Medication. “It begins with a sore throat, a excessive fever, a runny nostril, pink eye. Individuals suppose, ‘oh, it might go away.’ However then it progresses.”
Sinnott mentioned it will probably become pneumonia and even demise in excessive circumstances in unvaccinated younger youngsters or the aged. He mentioned he recommends older adults make certain they’ve acquired a booster shot, which many individuals might not notice they want.
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“These folks have underlying coronary heart illness, underlying diabetes. One out of 12 have underlying most cancers. These folks do horribly with measles,” he mentioned. “It’s about probably the most contagious illness now. Typically, in an unvaccinated group, one particular person will infect 18 different folks.”
That considerations dad and mom with younger youngsters, together with Stephanie Kaltenbaugh.
“I’ve a bit of children, you recognize, that do not have. They don’t seem to be absolutely vaccinated but,” she mentioned, including her 2-year-old has not but acquired the second of the two-dose Measles, Mumps and Rubella, or MMR, vaccine. “I’ve so many associates with infants which are below six months previous that they do not even have their first shot.”
Research have proven the measles vaccine is no less than 97% efficient and, based on docs, sufferers who’re uncovered to the virus can nonetheless obtain safety from a vaccine inside three days of publicity.
The Supply: The data on this story was gathered by way of interviews with Courtney Fellows, Dr. John Sinnott and Stephanie Kaltenbaugh. It additionally contains info from the Florida Division of Well being.
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