Here is Dr. Klotman’s Week 268 video address. My summary notes appear below.
Travel advisory
- The CDC has announced a Level 2 travel advisory regarding Yellow Fever in South America
- If you are planning travel to Peru, Bolivia, or Columbia, you should get a yellow fever vaccine 10 days before your planned departure. (If you are an anti-vaxxer, it would be best to cancel your travel plans. That’s my personal advice.)
- Travel to Chile and Argentina does not yet carry this advisory; the rest of South America does.
- While many yellow fever viral infections are mild, 15% lead to severe illness with liver damage.
Measles
- We’re up to 1000+ US measles cases with 13% hospitalizations and 3 deaths
- Weekly measles incidence has been steadily decreasing for several weeks; we may be past the worst of this multi-centric outbreak
- Texas still leads the nation in Measles cases – 96% are among the unvaccinated
Influenza
This year’s childhood mortality from Influenza pneumonia was higher than in any of the past 15 years. We have lost 216 children to the Flu this season
Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
- We’ve had 8,000+ cases of whooping cough so far this year – there were fewer than 4,000 last year
- This is a deadly disease in very young children, and it is entirely preventable with vaccination.
- Among adults, including geriatric folks like me, taking Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis vaccine) helps to protect our grands from the infection.