“Immune amnesia” caused by measles is a real thing, though we only just discovered it in 2012. You probably haven’t heard of it until now because measles really hasn't been an issue in the U.S. since it was first identified thirteen years ago, and unless you’re an immunologist or a very unlucky parent, you had no reason to. The theory around immune amnesia began a long time ago, when doctors and parents noticed that kids who recovered from measles were sicker and died more often from other illnesses in the year or two after they recovered from measles. Then, when a vaccine was developed, scientists noticed something miraculous: vaccinated kids died a lot less, from…well…everything. The likelihood of death was slashed by between 30% (in richer areas) and 86% (in poorer areas) in the few years after kids got their shots. Doctors theorized that something about the measles wiped out the immune system’s memory, so, for a few years after infection, it’s like the body is meeting each pathogen for the very first time - a cold, flu, pneumonia, E. coli, you name it. A 2019 study found that measles infection wipes out anywhere from 11% to 73% of the antibodies a child had previously developed against both viral and bacterial pathogens. It turns out that measles doesn’t bind to cells in the lungs, like other respiratory viruses, but to the immune cells themselves. It specifically binds to the memory T cells, the ones that stay in the body for a long time to remember previous infections, and blocks them from recognizing those - other than, of course, the measles. That’s part of why you’ll never get the measles again if you’ve had it once.
Long story short: measles can be mild for some, but deadly for about 1 in 1000 people (mostly kids) who get it. But the impact goes far beyond the initial infection and can seriously increase the chance that your child dies from another illness for years to come. The good news: the MMR vaccine slashes the risk of getting measles (two doses is 97% effective at preventing infection) and the risk of death from any cause for years.
Sources: BBC, Science, Harvard, National Geographic, PLOS, NIH
We are finally seeing flu start to decline, though we aren’t out of the woods yet - flu cases are still higher than most years’ peaks. Here are some of the reasons why:
Flu season isn’t done yet, and even though we’ve finally peaked, lots of employees out there are still getting sick. It’s not too late to benefit from a flu shot if you haven’t gotten one, but you’ll need to go soon to get any major benefit.
Sources: CBS, Beckers Hospital Review, Washington Post, Time
We’ve got a fun and snarky best read this week. We don’t usually use Op Eds for this, but we can’t resist a cartoon, and this one from the LA Times is too cute to pass up!
