Dan Wilson
Senior Member
In 2018, we witnessed outbreaks and increased reports of measles cases across the United States. These outbreaks are driven by two causes that are not mutually exclusive 1) Travelers returning from areas where measles is common or 2) Communities with lower vaccination rates. As a result, communities where vaccination among children are lower than surrounding areas face blame. https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html#outbreaks
Does measles make you healthy? No.
Being infected with measles is dangerous. Not only can it result in death, measles can also cause complications that leave permanent damage. https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/complications.html
Can natural measles infections fight cancer? Not really.
Doctors have long noticed that a variety of viral infections can cause temporary improvements in cancer patients. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5086626/
Measles is dangerous, deadly, and leaves lasting negative effects on patients. Vaccinating against measles is one of the best things you can do for your health.
In the wake of these outbreaks and media attention, many individuals choosing not to vaccinate their children against diseases like measles have stood their ground. In defense of this position, some have claimed that natural immunity to measles is a good thing that leads to an overall better immune system. Recently, Darla Shine, wife of the current White House deputy chief of staff for communications, gained media attention for taking this stance in a series of tweets. https://www.thedailybeast.com/darla...fficial-goes-on-pro-measles-anti-vaccine-rantExternal Quote:2018: The U.S. experienced 17 outbreaks in 2018, including three outbreaks in New York State, New York City, and New Jersey, respectively. Cases in those states occurred primarily among unvaccinated people in Orthodox Jewish communities. These outbreaks were associated with travelers who brought measles back from Israel, where a large outbreak is occurring.
Shine goes on to cite a story where a young girl's multiple myeloma went into remission thanks to measles. Here, we will examine Shine's two claims about measles improving health and fighting cancer.External Quote:"The entire Baby Boom population alive today had the #Measles as kids," she bizarrely added. "Bring back our #ChildhoodDiseases they keep you healthy & fight cancer."
Does measles make you healthy? No.
Being infected with measles is dangerous. Not only can it result in death, measles can also cause complications that leave permanent damage. https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/complications.html
But what if you survive measles complication free? Is your immune system stronger? The answer turns out to be the exact opposite. In every country, measles vaccines are associated with decrease risk of death from all disease (see attached). A team of scientists from four different institutions investigated this correlation and found that being infected with measles actually creates a sort of "immune amnesia" where the patient is more likely to be infected and die of other infectious disease over the next 2 to 3 years. http://science.sciencemag.org/conte...XTNJz8cryXD8XpGAhhmDUGfqPJyv2DIFdTF4Uxcxu7lPIExternal Quote:
- As many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children.
- About one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability.
- For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.
External Quote:Our results show that when measles was common, MV [measles virus] infections could have been implicated in as many as half of all childhood deaths from infectious disease, thus accounting for nearly all of the interannual fluctuations in childhood infectious disease deaths. The reduction of MV infections was the main factor in reducing overall childhood infectious disease mortality after the introduction of vaccination.
They also did performed their same studies on pertussis and found this effect to be specific for measles. Science does not support the idea that natural measles infection holds any benefit.External Quote:In other words, MV infection replaced the previous memory cell repertoire with MV-specific lymphocytes, resulting in "immune amnesia" (17) to nonmeasles pathogens.
Can natural measles infections fight cancer? Not really.
Doctors have long noticed that a variety of viral infections can cause temporary improvements in cancer patients. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5086626/
The story that Shine cited in her tweets, however, has a happier ending. https://returntonow.net/2019/02/09/...Wz2H-wu3yK7XLAZzpp_OSA2Kxz_K_em9h9osVSPpvZ1r0External Quote:In 1904, Dock [1] described two cases of chronic leukaemia that appeared to improve whilst the individual was infected by influenza; in one patient lymphadenopathy transiently reduced in size and in the other case the leucocyte count reportedly fell when infected, but both later relapsed.
But there are a few big problems with using stories like this to say that natural measles infections should come back. A very important detail in the story that Shine pointed to is that the measles virus being used for treatment was not a natural one.External Quote:She had an advanced case of multiple myeloma, a deadly cancer of the blood spread throughout her body and bone marrow, when researchers offered her a last-ditch resort — a massive dose of the measles. Within 5 minutes, she got a splitting headache and a fever of 105, followed by vomiting and shaking. Within 36 hours, a tumor the size of a golf ball on her forehead had disappeared, and within two weeks there was no cancer detectable in her body.
In other words, the virus used to cure this patient's cancer is the same that would be used in a vaccine. So, it could be argued that a heavy dose of measles vaccine actually has the potential to treat certain cancers. Virotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that is currently being heavily studied and a weakened, non-infectious form of virus is used in every case. That is because a real, natural infection holds too much risk and no sensible doctor would ever recommend one.External Quote:The virus strain was engineered and weakened in a lab, and then given in a dose strong enough to vaccinate 10 million people.
Measles is dangerous, deadly, and leaves lasting negative effects on patients. Vaccinating against measles is one of the best things you can do for your health.
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