Measles is making a comeback. Here’s how Kansas City parents can protect their kids | Opinion

As a board-certified general pediatrician in the Kansas City area, I often receive messages from friends with simple questions about their child’s rash or fever. A few months ago, I received a phone call from a friend who had traveled abroad and unknowingly exposed her 11-month-old child to measles. Thankfully, this friend had done her homework beforehand and vaccinated her daughter early with the measles, mumps, rubella or MMR vaccine. But my mind was racing — they were in England, a country I otherwise wouldn’t have considered to be high risk for measles exposure. If my friend’s daughter had not been vaccinated, she and her family would have been required to quarantine for 21 days in a foreign country, and much worse, her daughter would have likely contracted this extremely contagious and dangerous disease.

Fast forward to a few weeks later and I am receiving many more questions regarding measles, as we are now facing an outbreak in our own country. As I write this, measles cases are confirmed in 18 states, even now in Kansas, and have affected 378 individuals and taken the lives of two people, including a 6-year-old girl. As a pediatrician and a mother to two beautiful girls, one 2-year-old and one 2-month-old, I am heartbroken for this family and the others who have been and will be affected by this dangerous disease.

Most people living in our country have now heard the basics about measles: It is an extremely contagious, airborne disease that used to cause nearly 50,000 hospitalizations and close to 500 deaths annually in the U.S. Since the introduction of the measles vaccine in the 1960s and the combined MMR vaccine in 1971, these statistics completely changed. So much so, that in 2000, measles was declared officially eliminated in the United States. Many younger physicians like me had never diagnosed a measles case, except when completing standardized test questions on one of our medical board examinations.

But now, we are all on high alert for fevers accompanied by the classic rash, with potential complications such as pneumonia or the dangerous brain swelling called encephalitis. We are bombarded with so much information about measles on the news and in social media — both accurate and false — that it is almost too easy to disengage.

But I am writing this to say that measles does affect every one of us — and we cannot disengage.

So what can you do to protect yourself and those you love the most? Get the measles vaccine. I am vaccinating both of my children against measles because I know the vaccine is safe and effective. There is no other medicine, vitamin or supplement that can prevent this disease or its complications. Please talk to your child’s pediatrician. We want to make sure you are knowledgeable and informed about the decisions you make for your child, and you should feel empowered to ask questions. I would much rather have a meaningful and productive discussion about the vaccine now before the disease personally affects you or your family.

I will vaccinate my 2-month-old when she is eligible, but I worry about her during this time when she cannot be vaccinated. Fortunately, she receives some protection from my antibodies since I have immunity to measles, but she is still vulnerable to infection. I now must weigh the risks of every social gathering and seriously consider whether travel is necessary. As parents of a toddler, we are also carefully considering day care options based on their vaccination policies. Parents with school-age children often do not have the luxury of choosing where their child goes to school, and yet the school’s vaccination rates strongly affect their child’s risk of contracting the disease. Older adults who have not been vaccinated or may have weakened immune systems for a variety of reasons are also at risk of contracting measles.

We can each do our part to help stop this outbreak. Ask questions, but then when you feel like these questions have been adequately addressed, please get vaccinated. As a mother who cannot provide this protection to her daughter yet, this is the greatest gift you can give.