725 - "An Unforgiving Virus" Measles Hits the U.S.
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2024
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Measles outbreaks can quickly spread like wildfire. Vaccination expert Dr. Saad Omer returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the threat posed by this highly contagious and potentially lethal virus – especially when communities let their guard down. They discuss the situation in Florida, misinformation spreading on social media, and what's needed to minimize the threat.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h. |
| 0:22.6 | That's public health question at jh.g.u.org for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.6 | This is Lindsay Smith Rogers. Today, outbreaks of measles in the United States, including in the state of Florida, where reports indicate that the state's surgeon general may be turning away from standard outbreak control measures. |
| 0:46.0 | Dr. Sade Omer is a vaccination expert and the founding dean of the O'Donnell School of Public Health at U.T. Southwestern in Dallas. |
| 0:53.7 | He speaks to Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how to keep measles outbreaks from turning into a measles wildfire. |
| 1:01.0 | Let's listen. |
| 1:03.0 | Dr. Sad Omer, thank you so much for joining me to talk about some of the latest developments on measles. |
| 1:10.0 | And I'd like to start just with a refresher |
| 1:12.4 | about the measles virus and why it is so dangerous. Well, measles virus is particularly |
| 1:19.6 | dangerous for two reasons. First of all, it's one of the most infectious common viruses |
| 1:26.0 | that is out there, |
| 1:30.3 | especially a virus that impacts children. |
| 1:36.6 | So you catch it very easily if there is any lapse in immunity in the population. |
| 1:43.1 | The second reason is that it not only causes an acute illness, |
| 1:49.9 | it has an impact on your immune system that lasts for a few years. |
| 1:56.8 | And so it makes, especially children, but others as well, more vulnerable to other infections. |
| 2:05.6 | So it has this one-two punch that it strikes with. That's why a lot of us pay attention when cases start emerging. We haven't had that many cases in the United States, but measles is more common around the world and causes quite a lot of harm. |
| 2:12.6 | It does. And it's a very unforgiving virus, especially in public health emergencies, |
| 2:19.3 | if there is a lapse in the high immunization coverage that is needed to keep this virus under check. |
| 2:28.8 | So therefore, I think we need to pay attention to the cases of this virus. |
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