Is the Texas Measles Outbreak Slowing Down?
Let's hope, but I wouldn't bet on it.
With a smaller jump in the case count this last report, some folks are likely thinking that the Texas measles outbreak is slowing down.
“Edwards estimated he saw about 70 patients at the makeshift clinic that day and made additional home calls to sick kids on his drive back to Lubbock.”
Exclusive: ‘Just Normal Doctoring’ — a Texas Doctor’s Eyewitness Report on Measles Outbreak
That might be a bad bet to make though.
Is the Texas Measles Outbreak Slowing Down?
We are currently at 159 cases, including 22 that have been hospitalized, and one death (in Texas) in an outbreak that started on January 29.
Well, we actually don’t know when the outbreak started, or who started it.
It is more appropriate to say that the first case was discovered on January 29.
"According to Edwards, the Feb. 26 death of a Texas child who tested positive for measles might have been prevented if hospital staff had given her breathing treatments, such as budesonide.”
Exclusive: ‘Just Normal Doctoring’ — a Texas Doctor’s Eyewitness Report on Measles Outbreak
And now that local anti-vaccine advocates have made the community believe that they won’t get proper care if they seek real medical attention, it is likely that we won’t get a real count of new cases.
“Edwards said, “This is what’s been told by the father to his community, so the community is now extremely hesitant to go to the Lubbock Hospital.”
Exclusive: ‘Just Normal Doctoring’ — a Texas Doctor’s Eyewitness Report on Measles Outbreak
Now, instead of getting vaccinated, they will continue to seek alternative treatments that won’t help, like cod liver oil and budesonide and clarithromycin.
But wait, can’t vitamin A prevent measles?
No, it can’t.
Vitamin A can prevent serious complications of measles if you are deficient in vitamin A, but it won’t prevent you from actually getting sick with measles. And if you are like most people in a developed country, you are not deficient in vitamin A unless you have a severely restricted diet.
What about budesonide, an inhaled steroid that is used to prevent asthma attacks?
Many anti-vaccine influencers push the idea of using budesonide to treat measles, because they think it helped folks with COVID.
“Rather than referencing scientific studies or randomized clinical trials, Bartlett offered his anecdotal experience treating COVID-19 patients as evidence for his claims. Published studies so far haven’t found evidence that budesonide, clarithromycin, and aspirin cure COVID-19.”
No evidence budesonide, clarithromycin, and aspirin combination is “silver bullet” for COVID-19, contrary to Texas doctor’s claim
The thing is, it didn’t help people with COVID, and there is no evidence that it would help anyone with measles.
“Eight randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reported on the use of inhaled corticosteroids budesonide, ciclesonide, or fluticasone compared to placebo or no treatment with inhaled corticosteroids for ambulatory or hospitalized patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 [98-105]. These trials reported on the outcomes of mortality, COVID-19-related hospitalization, and serious adverse events.”
IDSA Guidelines on the Treatment and Management of Patients with COVID-19
Budesonide has simply become the ivermectin of measles.
That’s not to say that steroids aren’t sometimes used to treat people with severe measles.
“Since early January 2017, a new measles outbreak in Italy has been observed. The aim of the study was to compare features between adults and children measles cases and evaluate the effect of steroid treatment on the above parameters.”
Steroid use in measles: A retrospective cohort study during the 2017 outbreak in tertiary referral center, Rome and Latina, Italy
But when steroids are needed, systemic steroids are given, not inhaled steroids. Just as hospitalized patients with severe COVID are treated with dexamethasone.
And what about antibiotics, like clarithromycin?
They can be helpful if you have measles and have developed a secondary bacterial infection, but otherwise, they won’t help.
“I’m not trying to be some anti-vax, West Texas holistic, crazy cowboy doctor out there just going solo and going off the rails. I’m doing what every doctor should do and would do.”
Exclusive: ‘Just Normal Doctoring’ — a Texas Doctor’s Eyewitness Report on Measles Outbreak
Of course, what he is doing is not what any real doctor would or should do!
“This is just normal doctoring.”
Exclusive: ‘Just Normal Doctoring’ — a Texas Doctor’s Eyewitness Report on Measles Outbreak
And it is only “normal” in this bizarro world we are living in with RFK Jr as Secretary of HHS!
References
No evidence budesonide, clarithromycin, and aspirin combination is “silver bullet” for COVID-19, contrary to Texas doctor’s claim. https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/no-evidence-budesonide-clarithromycin-aspirin-combination-silver-bullet-treatment-covid-contrary-texas-doctors-claim/
IDSA Guidelines on the Treatment and Management of Patients with COVID-19. https://www.idsociety.org/practice-guideline/covid-19-guideline-treatment-and-management/#Recommendation:InhaledCorticosteroids