With the worsening Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the recent arrival of the second American missionary with the disease at Emory Hospital, Ebola has been all over the news lately. There has been a lot of public concern and hysteria about how dangerous Ebola is to us here in the United States. While this is a very serious illness and has caused almost a thousand deaths in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Nigeria, there are diseases right here in the US that we should all be much more concerned about. What could be worse than Ebola, you say? How about influenza, measles, and whooping cough?
How does one contract Ebola?
I know, that’s not what the media outcry would lead you to believe. We’ve all heard that Ebola has a 60% mortality rate. This is where we have to put it into context. The current outbreak is occurring in some of the poorest countries in the world. There are few medical professionals, limited hospital bed space, and inadequate access to protective gear, including something as basic as latex gloves. Diarrheal illness is one of the major killers of children in the Third World. When’s the last time you heard of a child dying of diarrhea in the United States? Ebola is also pretty hard to get. You have to have close contact with blood or other body fluids from an infected person to contract the disease, meaning most people contracting the illness are health care workers or family members caring for the sick. Infected people are not contagious until they become symptomatic, allowing adequate time to identify potential infections. The Center for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and the health ministries of the affected countries are hard at work and will hopefully contain the epidemic very soon.
But what if a person infected with Ebola gets on an airplane you’re on and sits next to you? Are you going to get sick? Fortunately, that’s highly unlikely. The person would have to be sick already and literally bleed on you to transmit the virus. But you know what could happen? Someone could have the flu, measles, or pertussis (also known as whooping cough), have no symptoms, cough on your unimmunized child and they are likely to catch the disease. In fact, measles is so contagious that everyone on that plane is at risk as well as the cleaning people that come onto the plane two hours later. If an unimmunized person comes in contact with the measles virus, there is a 95% likelihood that they will contract the disease. And by coming in contact with, I mean to be in the same room with.
Stats of Ebola
See, the major public health difference between Ebola and flu, measles, and pertussis is the method of transmission. Ebola is spread by blood and body fluids like diarrhea, the others by respiratory secretions. You have kids, you’ve seen them cough, sneeze, wipe their nose on whatever they can get their hands on. They’re gross, and adults are not much better. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, virtually 100% of the population contracted measles by the age of 20 years. Thanks to the vaccine, most children in American will be spared this disease. However, due to lowered immunization rates, there have been almost 600 cases of measles reported in the US since January 2014. Measles is quite common in other parts of the world, including Western Europe, and is easily imported to the US. For every 1000 cases of measles, 1-2 people will die. Of a preventable disease.
Well, what about whooping cough?
That’s not around anymore, right? Not even close. In 2012, there were over 48,000 cases of pertussis reported in the US and many cases go unreported. Pertussis, also known as the 100 Day Cough, causes severe respiratory illness in infants and children and can even cause broken ribs and brain bleeds because of the severity of a cough. Even with the best medical care Western medicine can offer, 1% of infants under 2 months with pertussis will die.
Okay, okay, measles and pertussis. Bad bugs. But the flu is no big deal, right? Wrong. Did you know that, on average, about 24,000 Americans die of the flu EVERY YEAR? That’s similar to the number of people killed in car accidents each year. And it’s not just old people that die – last year, 105 children died of influenza. Half of them were previously healthy children with no risk factors and the majority of them were unimmunized. Remember, this completely unacceptable death toll is despite the full advantage of some of the best medical care available in the world. Many more very ill children suffered lengthy hospital stays and intensive care but were fortunate enough to survive their illnesses.
What is being done to control ebola?
The nations suffering through the Ebola epidemic are doing the best they can with what they have to offer. Ebola is only the latest of the infectious disease epidemics to claim lives. The African people deal with widespread malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis on a daily basis. Polio is making a resurgence in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Measles has been widespread in the Philippines after their devastating typhoon and unimmunized American aid workers have imported it to the United States. Parents in Third World countries travel great distances to get vaccines to protect their children. We are so fortunate in the United States to have easy access to these life-saving immunizations to protect our children and ourselves from these modern-day scourges.
Get a vaccine.
Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines are recommended by every health organization in the United States and around the world. There are dangerous germs out there that are constantly looking for their next host. Don’t let your family be their next victims. Get your children fully vaccinated without delay according to the evidence-based schedule recommended by your provider. Don’t be afraid of the bogeyman, be afraid of what’s really a threat to your family.
