Minnesota had increased its cases of measles this year compared to the entire case last year. The outbreak is blamed on parents who don't get their children vaccinated.
Because there's such an increased number of medications and vaccines promoted for measles cases, of course, it is expected that the number of patients will eventually go down. However, opposite thing happens in Minnesota, for despite decrease, the place experienced an increasing number of measles cases this year, The Verge reported.
Statistics revealed that this year, Minnesota already had 73 cases of measles, which is more than the entire case the country had last year. According to Tonic, the entire United States had only 70 measles cases last year and the 73 confirmed cases in the state of Minnesota is quite alarming.
Measles is known as a life-threatening disease-causing infection resulting to pneumonia and worst swelling of the brain such as encephalitis. Fortunately, the government offers the vaccine for measles, but those hard-headed people neglect the disease and ignore the advice of doctors from getting vaccinated.
The majority of the recorded measles cases includes unvaccinated preschool children from the Somali-American community, though measles starts to spread through the Minneapolis public school system. Until now, the outbreak in Minnesota has no signs of slowing but only increasing state making the government health officials worried that it will continue to spread in other areas like Columbus, Ohio.
There are more than 8,000 people who are exposed to the measles virus and are mostly in schools and hospitals. Director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control Division at Minnesota's Department of Health, Kristen Ehresmann said that "Many of the cases could have been prevented if people had gotten vaccinated."
Health officials blame the fear for getting vaccinated for the measles vaccine from anti-vaccine activists who continuously invited the disgraced doctor to convince the parents not to get vaccinated. Now, Minnesota has an average of twenty kids being hospitalized in a stay of five days due to measles cases. Additionally, health officials are working along with faith leaders to convince the parents to get their children vaccinated.
