The study also looked at measles vaccination which confirmed that the vaccine does not impair the immune repertoire like an infection does.
How does measles do this? It seems that measles can infect 20-70% of immune memory cells including B cells, T cells, and plasma cells in the lymphoid tissue and peripheral blood during the first 3-10 days after infection. 18/
T cell immunity may also diminish after measles infection and explain why cutaneous tuberculosis tests no longer test positive and remission of autoimmune related disorders are more common.
You can read more about how measles wipes out the body's immune memory here ( https://asm.org/Articles/2019/May/Measles-and-Immune-Amnesia ) and ( https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/10/how-measles-wipes-out-the-bodys-immune-memory/ ). 19/
When measles vaccination rates are reduced and outbreaks occur, herd immunity for secondary infectious disease can also be lost due to this destruction of immune memory from measles infections ( https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsif.2021.0153 ).
Protecting against measles also provides added benefits of protecting against other diseases as well. 20/
It was expected that people with two doses of measles vaccines may be protected for life but a study in Brazil found seropositivity may be lower than expected in adequately immunized adults ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10768653/ ).
Seropositivity was higher among older individuals and those with a shorter time since the last MMR vaccine dose. 21/
"The high rate of seronegative individuals in adequately vaccinated populations raises concerns about the potential role of a third dose of the MMR vaccine, particularly during outbreaks."
"Our data revealed that 67.3% of young adults considered adequately vaccinated had apparently non-protective IgG antibody titers, which may render them susceptible to measles." 22/
Low or undetectable levels of antibodies does not guarantee lack of protection with virus exposure but it is possible that cellular immune responses that were not measurable at the time may still provide some protection. 23/
"The measles-containing vaccine (MCV) is highly effective, but a small number of two dose-vaccinated people (around 3%) exposed to the virus contract measles." ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8537497/ ).
"In Spain, from 2003 to 2014, around 3.5% of confirmed cases had received two doses of MMR vaccine, most of them having received the second dose more than 10 years prior." 24/
There are already signals that measles may be quietly spreading in Canada with at least 9 confirmed infections in 2024 after 2 months compared to 12 cases for all of 2023 ( https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/measles-may-be-spreading-in-some-canadian-communities-officials-warn-1.7131704 ). H/T: @kristinaebp
Two recent cases identified in Quebec and Ontario were not tied to prior travel or came into contact with any known measles cases suggesting they were infected within their community. 25/
One case hadn't been vaccinated and the other was a vaccinated man in his 30s who still had a breakthrough infection with milder symptoms.
People previously vaccinated for measles who still get infected can have clinical presentations from mild to an illness that meets the full case definition so can make identification more difficult ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8537497/ ). 26/
Cleaning the air isn't just important for measles but TB, COVID, and respiratory viruses also transmit through the air via aerosols ( https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd9149 ).
For some reason Public Health will easily say that Measles and TB is airborne but they aren't educating the public that other viruses and bacteria use the exact same transportation network (aerosols) to spread in the air. 27/
TB bacteria which can be as long as 7000 nm ( https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/54/suppl_63/PA4605 ) use the same aerosol transportation as the 47x smaller measles virus (150 nm) ( https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7122368/ ) and the even smaller COVID virus (90 nm) ( https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7122368/ ). 28/
While it is important to wash your hands in general, protecting your airways is where the focus and biggest investments should be made. The risk of contact transmission via hands from COVID in a community setting is extremely rare.
This study tested 925 swabs and found only 0.32% had any viral RNA detected and of those, none of the samples contained viable viruses so unable to infect ( https://www.cureus.com/articles/227537-sars-cov-2-contamination-on-healthy-individuals-hands-in-community-settings-during-the-covid-19-pandemic#!/ ). 29/
Had Public Health and governments started investing in upgrading the infrastructure for clean indoor air early in the pandemic when it became obvious that COVID and respiratory viruses also spread via aerosols, we would be in a much better position today to deal with outbreaks of other viruses and increasing wildfire smoke pollution ( https://mstdn.science/@jeffgilchrist/110610646117356010 ). 30/
@jeffgilchrist I was a kid before the vaccines for measles and rubella were available, so I've actually had measles and can vouch for everything in this thread. I've never been as sick as I was when I was six and had measles. The fever, the headaches, the upset stomach, I was very ill for about a month. It took me years to fully recover and I still came out the other end with balance problems (inner ear damage) and arrhythmia. Not getting your child vaccinated should be considered child abuse.
Measles also completely wipes your immune system so you are then prey once again to all the infections to which you had acquired immunity up to then!
I agree - refusing to vaccinate you children against measles should be classed as child abuse - no exceptions for religion or other such nonsense!
