Disneyland, located in Southern California, has become a threat to all children and adults that are not vaccinated against measles. The reason for this upheaval is the presence of foreigners in public places, who carry the disease along with them. As a result, the entertainment park has been identified as the source of many infection focuses, all the way from San Diego to Northern California. Unfortunately, the person who started the epidemic has not been identified, but doctors believe that it could be someone coming from areas where people are under-immunized, as Doctor Eric G. Hangler, the public health officer for Orange County, said.
At present, 59 cases of measles have been identified, 13 of which were diagnosed in San Diego County. 41 of the subjects were visitors of Disneyland in a similar period.
Dr. Gil Chavez, deputy director of the state’s Center for Infectious Diseases tried to identify the period in which the park in Anaheim has been infected with measles. Even if, at the beginning, the period of time established was between the 17th to 20th of December, scientists found out that the number of cases continued to rise even after these dates.
“It’s really difficult to tell now when the last day of exposure might be. For the time being, if you are not vaccinated or if you have an infant who is too young to be vaccinated, you should avoid going to Disneyland.”
The cast members of Disneyland have also been tested in order to see if they have the disease or not. Evidently, they will be put on paid leave until their health issue is validated. Dr. Gil Chavez, state epidemiologist for California, told reporters that if people are vaccinated, it is totally safe for them to enter and visit any places they want to, but that parents of infants should not do it, for the next period of time.
However, Barbara Loe Fisher, the president of the National Vaccine Information Center believes that the number of measles cases (59) in a country with a population of 317 million people is not that much and that people should wait and see what kind of other information can be gathered by doctors and scientists.
Measles has been a very harsh disease in the 60s’, when there was no vaccination variant and thus, about 3 to 4 million Americans caught the disease in one year, from which 400 to 500 of them died annually.
Image Source: Farm 5
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