Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Once Easily Recognized. Signs of Measles Now Elude Young Doctors


A decades-long effort to immunize American children managed to wipe out the last homegrown measles cases in 2000. (Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)

7 comments:

Owen said...

I hope that medical schools will teach medical students more about measles in future years but unfortunately they can't give the medical students any hands on experience because there usually aren't any patients that have measles while medical students are in training. The good thing is that older doctors have more experience with measles and can help the younger doctors diagnose the disease.

Brandon D. said...

I think that it is horrible that people with measles don't even get diagnosed correctly right away. I think that every disease even if it is considered "dead" should be taught in medical school. Also, as Owen said, the good thing is t hat the older doctors know more about measles than the younger ones. The older ones can definitely help.








Grace! said...

This was once one of the most popular diseases ever. Now, since the magical vaccine has been invented, there aren't really anymore people with measles and it is making it hard for doctors/doctors-in-training to diagnose it. Also, DisneyLand had cases of the measles which all connected back to the park, so I'm thinking, "Why the heck didn't that medical school teach those students what the heck that stuff looks like!" Like Owen said, older doctors who were training/working right before the time of the vaccine, or maybe a doctor's father or mother was around, could teach the students how to diagnose it and how to treat it. These days, the amount of people that have it is making it hard for doctors-in-training to have the proper care for measles since there aren't many with the disease.

James said...

I think that this situation is a very bad one. Not having doctors trained to treat/diagnose measles just allows it to spread even faster because more people are infected and contagious. Just because a disease is dead does not mean it can't come back.

Kendall said...

I think the problem is that in order to learn, seeing is very helpful. Say you were blind. People can tell you what a tree looks like, but you will never be able to really understand. And if someday, you could see again, and you say a tree, you would still not know what it is.

Maxwell said...

This is crazy that doctors are no longer trained to cure or treat with measles just because they thought they made it go away. A disease never really goes away it just stays for a very long time and has occasional outbreaks. This is was not a very logical guess to take. This non-brilliant decision can now let the measles become popular and spread more until doctors know how to treat it. Though sometimes the vaccine might work but still diseases can mutate and fight against the vaccine. They aren't hopeless for forever, this isn't a rare type of disease where it just stays the same for many decades. We as a world cannot make these mistakes, when you find a disease you add it to your list you don't just erase it when its gone then when it comes back you are hopless.

Celene A. said...

It would be great if medical schools would teach their students more about measles. It is unfortunate that they wouldn't be able to give any "hands on" experience. It is a terrible thing that patience with measles are not able to get diagnosed correctly right away.