Clinicians Should Be on Alert for Measles in Adults - 亿万28官网

The accumulating data points to the need for a mindset shift, Gregory Poland, MD, president and co-director of the New York-based Atria Research and Global Health Institute, told Medscape Medical News.

“Measles is not just a pediatric disease,” said Poland, a vaccine researcher.

The nation may soon start seeing more cases in adults, said Robert Bednarczyk, PhD, associate professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta. [...] The growing number of cases in older children and young adults is a sign of vaccine hesitation coming home to roost, both Poland and Bednarczyk told Medscape Medical News. Not only has under vaccination “been going on for a long time,” but unvaccinated children are now growing into unvaccinated adults, Bednarczyk said. [...] But that doesn’t rule out spread to adults in other areas “because it is such a pervasive virus,” Goldman told Medscape Medical News, noting that it can live on surfaces for extended periods and that it can be a week or more before a person is symptomatic.

Pool of Adults at Risk

Two doses of MMR vaccine are 97% protective against measles, and those who are vaccinated will have a milder form of the disease if they are infected, said Schaffner.