Eman, our informally adopted son who is a physician in Monrovia, Liberia, is recovering from the measles. He contracted it from a teen patient.
"It started with a slight fever and chills, and became a burning fever. Then I had cough and red, watery eyes. I treated myself for malaria and went for a checkup. The doctor saw the rashes on my face and hands, and said it didn't look like a typical measles rash. Initially I was treated as an outpatient and told to isolate. Then in two days, I got shortness of breath at home, and had to get admitted. I experienced respiratory distress and had to get supplemental oxygen. It reminded me of having COVID."
He had measles vaccine as a child, and thought he had some cross-protection from having had chickenpox.
"I've been looking up papers on why a previously vaccinated person or an adult would get measles. A lot of them are pointing to incomplete dosages, improper handling of the vaccines, waning immunity, or being immunocompromised. There are many other previously vaccinated adults with measles for the first time. This should be happening in mostly immunocompromised people, and
I'm not. The measles outbreak has been terrible."
Perhaps the scariest thing about infectious diseases is that they change. That's what nucleic acids – DNA and RNA – do.
To continue reading, go to DNA Science, where this post first appeared.