By the time you know you have measles, you have probably spread it to other people. Last week鈥檚 outbreak in Whistler and Pemberton is a reminder that the disease is still around, and if you鈥檙e not protected, you could catch it.
On July 12, the sa国际传媒 Centre for Disease Control warned that four people in the Whistler/Pemberton area had been diagnosed with the illness. The centre advised vaccination for anyone whose immunization is not up to date.
The disease first shows up with cold-like symptoms before the classic fever and rash appear. It can cause inflammation of the brain, seizures, brain damage or deafness. One in 3,000 Canadians who get it will die.
Although hundreds of thousands of people contract measles each year, few of them are in sa国际传媒, so most of us don鈥檛 pay attention to vaccination or know the symptoms. Most assume they got the shots as children and are protected.
If you were born before 1970, you are probably immune, but a vaccination can鈥檛 hurt. Those born in sa国际传媒 after 1994 should have received two shots and are fully protected. If you were born before 1994 or were born outside sa国际传媒, you probably only got one shot and need a second.
sa国际传媒 had a big bump of 82 cases in 2010, when people from around the world arrived in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics. In 2011, there were 10 cases 鈥� low, but still higher than the zero to four cases earlier in the decade.
Other countries have learned the hard way what happens when people ignore vaccinations. In Ireland, measles cases jumped from 148 cases in 1999 to 1,200 in 2000 when the vaccination rate fell to 76 per cent because parents were persuaded by a bogus study linking vaccinations and autism. In 1979, Japan had an epidemic of whooping cough that sickened 31,000 and killed 41 after rumours spread that pertussis vaccination was no longer necessary.
Vaccines work, and they work better when more people get them.
