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Opening Arguments

Super Bowl bust out

When everybody was gushing about all the effects from the Super Bowl that would spread out all over Indiana, this probably wasn't what they were thinking of, huh?

 

That epicenter was the Super Bowl which took place in Indianapolis on February 4th.
Since then, there have been 13 reported cases of measles.

Dr. Bohlin said patients won't see symptoms for about 7 to 14 days after they are infected.

Nasty stuff, measles -- lots of itching and a fierce fever. I gained immunity from it the old-fashioned way, by having the measles as a kid instead of getting a vaccination. So I don't have to worry about the odds -- one in 20 with measles will also get pneumonia, according to one county health official. One in 1,000 will end up with a brain infection, and one or two in 1,000 will die from it.

Most of the accounts of this outbreak are using  "epidemic" to describe it, which at first seemed like overstating it to me. Shouldn't we reserve that word for the really big outbreaks of the really scary stuff? But I guess the term is relative:

The definition of an epidemic, as used by those who study the phenomenon, is more cases of an illness than one would normally expect to see, based on previous experience. In many cases the word epidemic describes a disease that creates a threat to the general public and that kills many people. So according to the first definition, two cases of smallpox constitute an epidemic, since there is currently no smallpox in the world. On the other hand, 75 cases of yellow fever would be an epidemic if we only expect to see 20 cases.

Because there has been such a push for immunization, measles cases are a lot rarer than they used to be. So 13 cases so far, with many more likely counts. Epidemic it is.

Comments

littlejohn
Wed, 02/15/2012 - 3:08pm

There probably wouldn't have been in problem at all if it weren't for the anti-vaxers spreading nonsense about vaccines causing autism.

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