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https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/south-carolina-measles-outbreak-cases-double-vaccines-quarantine-rcna253989>
"The South Carolina measles outbreak is growing at an astounding speed.
“Over the last seven to nine days, we’ve had upwards of over 200 new cases.
That’s doubled just in the last week,” Dr. Johnathon Elkes, an emergency
medicine physician at Prisma Health in Greenville, South Carolina, said during
a media briefing Friday. “We feel like we’re really kind of staring over the
edge, knowing that this is about to get a lot worse.”
On Friday, the state’s health department said that 124 measles cases had been
diagnosed since Tuesday, bringing the state’s total since the outbreak began
last fall to 558.
A spokesperson for the South Carolina Health Department said in an email that
“eight people, including adults and children, required hospitalization for
complications of the disease since the start of the outbreak.” It was unclear
how many people are currently hospitalized.
During the Friday briefing, Prisma Health pediatric infectious disease
specialist Dr. Robin LaCroix estimated that 200 people are now “actively
infected.”
The South Carolina Health Department said that 531 people are in a 21-day
quarantine following an exposure to measles.
The number of cases is expected to grow. The health department’s report only
reflects the number of people whose illness has been confirmed as measles by a
lab.
Because measles is so contagious and people can spread the virus up to four
days before symptoms appear, each sick individual has the potential to infect
12 other people, LaCroix said during the briefing.
“The numbers that you see are actually an undercount,” said Dr. Deborah
Greenhouse, a Columbia, South Carolina-based pediatrician, in a separate
interview. “The reality is that there’s a lot more. Not everyone with measles
is going to see a physician.” Greenhouse is also a past president of the South
Carolina chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics."
Via Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
