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Wgu Community Health Task 2

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Communicable Disease Outbreak
(Measles)
Community Health Task 2
Western Governors University
Carissa J Dugan
Student ID: 000468111
August 20, 2015

Measles was discovered in the 19th century by a Persian Doctor, but was not recognized until 1957 as an infectious agent in human blood by a Scottish physician. In 1912 measles became a notifiable disease and in the first decade that records were kept there was on average 6,000 deaths per year reported from the disease. (Center For Disease Control). There is no definite origination of measles but scientists believe that it dates back to the Roman Empire about the 11th and 12th century (NCBI, 2010). The first outbreak known in America was in 1657 in Boston, …show more content…

(Center For Disease Control).Those at greatest risk for contracting the disease are individuals who do not vaccinate or children to young to receive the vaccine. Signs and symptoms of measles include high fevers up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, rash, cough, conjunctivitis and runny nose. Many other complications may evolve once a person is infected with measles some being otitis media and pneumonia. The infected person is contagious roughly about 4 days prior to the rash forming and for about 4-5 days after the rash disappears. Most people that have died from the disease did not die from measles but the complications of measles and secondary illnesses. (The History Of Vaccines).
An infection in my community would quickly become an outbreak of measles and would probably spread quickly infecting many and claiming lives of young and old. A Measles outbreak is a strong possibility due to a large religious group with thousands of members in my community that do not believe in vaccinations, and only allow for limited healthcare. Popular organic lifestyles and refusal of vaccinations are believed to have aided in spread of a recent outbreak of Measles in California. The virus detected in California was identical to one that caused a large outbreak in the Philippines last year. The California outbreak that was noted from December 2014 to February 2015 notes that there were 125 confirmed cases, and 15 of the cases were confirmed to have been linked to the

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