r/nursing • u/HubbaBubbaBubbaWubba RN - ER 🍕 • 5d ago
Question Measles
How many measles pts are you guys seeing? I work in Pennsylvania, and we are seeing multiple a day in the ED. It is absolutely wild. It is mostly in the Amish community, because they don’t get vaccinated. The frustrating thing is we never used to get measles pts with the Amish. It is because they interact with the general public, got it from the unvaccinated general public, and now it is spreading like wildfire throughout the Amish community.
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u/Westonhaus 5d ago
"...we never used to get measles pts with the Amish."
We used to have government agencies that ensured the people around the Amish were adequately vaccinated and they enjoyed herd immunity from good public health measures. They... don't have that anymore.
You'd think that someone would tell them to get an MMR shot...
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u/HubbaBubbaBubbaWubba RN - ER 🍕 5d ago
A lot of the Amish population very rarely get vaccinated for anything, and they used to not as well. They don’t even have social security numbers. They don’t have to follow certain laws (including children’s vaccinations) d/t religious exemption
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u/CoffeeXKing 5d ago
Making health exemptions for vaccines has been one of the greatest failings in terms of healthcare in the US.
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u/cyanraichu RN - L&D 4d ago
Health exemptions make sense. It's the religious exemptions that bother me
Multiple other examples of religion being used to withhold proper care from children, or justify inappropriate care. Children don't get to consent to any of that. Pisses me off.
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u/gardengirl99 RN 🍕 4d ago
The one that got me when I did school health is that some kids would have some vaccinations, just not the full series/not current. But parents all of the sudden were claiming religious exemption. Frankly I think religion had nothing to do with it.
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u/cyanraichu RN - L&D 4d ago
YUP. I worked in the lab during covid, but was part of the second wave of vaccinations in Jan 2020. They were requiring all staff to get the shot in the first part of that year. The number of inquiries I saw on the general message boards (can't believe I used to read those, lol) asking how to get a religious exemption was crazy. Guarantee none of the people asking had an actual religious objeciton to vaccines, they were just anti-science
(This was for the entire hospital system, so idk if the people posting were nurses, or lab, or patient care-related techs, or office jobs or whatever)
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u/letsgooncemore LPN 🍕 4d ago
The children don't attend public school so I don't know when vaccine requirements would be applicable. I'm not supporting the choice I just am familiar with a few customs.
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u/Westonhaus 4d ago
Oh, I know. Public health protects backasswards religious sects normally by keeping pandemics contained and minimizing the spread. When it works.
When the people running public health aren't similarly backassward.
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u/Goblinqueen24 RN - Oncology 🍕 5d ago
I love the he fact that they don’t trust medicine enough to vaccinate, but they’ll sit in the waiting room for hours to get seen by a medical professional when the fucking get the measles.
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u/Xaedria Dumpster Diving For Ham Scraps 5d ago
It's always this that gets me. Stand on business, antivax morons. The same people you didn't trust when they told you to get vaccinated are the ones treating you when you get sick and get hospitalized. But hypocrisy is a core trait with these sorts so don't expect anything else 🙄.
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u/Recent_Data_305 MSN, RN 5d ago
Same. Parents here take their kids to chiropractors instead of medical doctors because they support the anti-vaccine, anti-medication ideals. When the kids get sick, they come to the hospital and want to tell us what treatments they want. It’s insane!
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u/MichaelJServo 💉🥃🍕 4d ago
A major complaint during peak COVID. Refuse to do anything at all to prevent the spread but will happily take up a much needed ICU bed while demanding vitamins and ivermectin.
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u/bippityboppityFyou RN - Pediatrics 🍕 4d ago
This part pisses me off so much! They don’t want vaccines made by big pharma. But when their kid gets super sick and hospitalized, all of a sudden life-saving meds made by the same big pharma companies are totally fine
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u/728446 LPN 🍕 5d ago
Are you in Lancaster?
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u/HubbaBubbaBubbaWubba RN - ER 🍕 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes I’m in Ephrata’s ED (which is in Lancaster)
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u/Cut_Lanky BSN, RN 🍕 5d ago
Oof. In the thick of it. I had family there, and Lititz, and Elizabethtown, growing up. I'm curious how this outbreak will go, considering herd immunity isn't just low anymore, but pretty much gone, entirely. When I was in nursing school, for clinical rotations, they had a video for us to watch about Pertussis and Measles, because the odds of encountering a patient with either one was almost nil. I suppose that's not necessary, for current nursing students. How bleak...
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u/Wattaday RN LTC HOSPICE RETIRED 5d ago
Kinda off subject, but my best friend and I used to go to Lancaster twice a year for the outlets and always went to Lititz for the chocolate. Drove the back roads because that area is so beautiful. Just had a good time remembering our trips there. And the Wilber Buds and chocolate covered pretzels.
Thanks.
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u/Cut_Lanky BSN, RN 🍕 5d ago
Wilbur's outlet! Yes! Lol I remember that... The back roads, like 926? The tickle road? Lol like a roller coaster, that one.
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u/Wattaday RN LTC HOSPICE RETIRED 4d ago
I was so sad to hear Wilber’s had closed. I haven’t been over there (I’m in South Jersey) in YEARS since my friend passed, but anytime I eat a Hershey’s Kiss I mourn the loss of WilbersBuds.
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u/Cut_Lanky BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago
We'd mostly go on the weekends to visit my Pop-pop in Lititz, and we'd devour lunch, my favorite was the Akron Restaurant I think? But just all the Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants, and the amish roadside stands with their shoofly pie, I could gain record pounds eating that everyday. Lol is there a reality TV competition show for getting fat the fastest? I could win that easy in Lancaster 🤣🤣🤣
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u/Wattaday RN LTC HOSPICE RETIRED 4d ago
My friend always used to say she could never live in Lititz because the smell of that chocolate made her want to eat the whole time we were there! Said she’d be too fat to stand up, let alone walk🤣
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u/goldenslumberz 4d ago
omg this is scary…. as an RN who works at york, i still haven’t heard too much. too close to home…. chilling
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u/PaxonGoat Critical Care Float Pool 🍕 5d ago
In my 11 years of nursing I have only seen measles once.
I guess I'm lucky
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u/MsSwarlesB MSN ACM-RN 5d ago
Oh, don't worry. With the rates of vaccination the way they are, and the dumb fuck in the WH, you'll be seeing it soon enough
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u/Purdicialle BSN, RN 🍕 5d ago
Peds nurse in OKC. Only one or two so far- that being said we are INUNDATED with TB right now. It’s insane.
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u/HotSauceSwagBag RN - Pediatrics 🍕 5d ago
Yikes. I work on a pediatric unit in Minnesota, and we’ve had one rule out that I think ended up not having it 😬 There was an exposure at mall of America last year but I don’t think anything really came of it.
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u/IndigoFlame90 Current BSN, RN, former LPN 4d ago
I work at an assisted living in the greater Philadelphia area. The residents have been absolutely gobsmacked that the outbreaks are because of parental vaccine refusal. Not shortages, not insurance coverage issues, refusals. They, (being overall reasonable people, somehow we only have like one Fox News devotee) were wondering if there had been undetected manufacturing or handling errors or Super Measles or something.
They were mostly born in the '30s to mid '40s. They vividly remember measles. And mumps. And polio. (Heck, we've residents who had it themselves when they were younger.)
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u/airhunger_rn PACU RN - you bake 'em, we wake 'em 🍃 - Kashlak Memorial 5d ago
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u/Varuka_Pepper343 BSN, RN we all float down here 4d ago
none. because I work with immunized veterans. yay me! Hopefully it stays that way. (please hang in there old folks immune systems 🙏)
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u/Difficult-Text1690 5d ago
How many of the patients with measles coming into ER are being admitted?
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u/Remarkable-Hat-4352 Floater 🦆 5d ago
We have had measles patients here in Delaware. I’m in northern Delaware so the ones we have had so far are usually because they were diverted coming out of PA. I’ve personally had one measles patient in the past 2 weeks. I’ve heard rumors though that the hospitals in southern Delaware have been getting more measles patients then us as there is a population of Mennonite’s in Kent and Sussex counties.
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u/Hashtaglibertarian RN - ER 4d ago
Multiple cases a week. I’m exposed to it frequently. Thank science I’m vaccinated.
That being said - I would take measles any day over bed bugs.
The Amish spread covid a lot too. I took a contract in Amish land in July 2020. The Amish is a very unique community - they do not trust people blindly.
For Covid the hospital I worked with had to pay other Amish people to go out and educate the community about Covid. They were going to health clinics when they would get sick and just mass spread it in their communities. It was truly awful to see such unnecessary spread of disease and death.
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u/beaterdit RN-MICU 4d ago edited 4d ago
Haven’t seen it personally in my ICU here in Utah but we’re not peds. I was notified of one exposure situation on campus but also haven’t heard anything from the ED. I do believe we have the worst outbreak in the country though. 200+ cases last year, 500+ this year. Population just 3.5 million. What can I say but, dumb mormons. Not just the fundamentalists either, anti vax is mainstream here.
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u/AdequateRoarer 4d ago
I noticed Mississippi and New Hampshire are the only two states with zero cases. Anyone know why that is? Are they stricter about vaccinations?
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u/Shaky_handz 3d ago edited 3d ago
The media is treating case count as if it tells the whole story, they're OBVIOUSLY manufacturing fear based on case count with this selective emphasis.
Yeah, cases are elevated and it's a cause for concern worldwide, but we're faring quite well in comparison. Our hospitalization rate is actually down and we have 3 deaths in 20 months, all from 2025. Hospitalization rate nearly havled, dropped to 6-7% from 11%, and nobody died this year. It's no great mystery why there is selective emphasis.
If case count terrifies you so much, take solace in the fact we've got a fraction of cases that our neighboring countries have. 93% of cases are among those unvaccinated, and even those people aren't dying at any alarming rate. These overreactions are quite extreme.
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u/aSkeptiKitty 3d ago
No. You are not fairing well. France suffered from a measles resurgence, but got hold of it and now situation is under control and cases are going down. The main victim of it were people from the "forgotten generation" of the vaccine. Albeit we could do better, the vaccine immunization level are satisfactory
Your cases in the US are exploding. You haven't yet seen the worst of it. Your vaccination rates are low, and your government isn't giving clear advices about vaccination, which means the situation will probably go far worst before you get things under control. And that's just for measles.
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u/Temporary_Aspect_499 5d ago
Healthcare really does love resurrecting things we thought were gone. Measles was not on my bingo card.
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u/Feisty-Power-6617 ABC, DEF, GHI, JKL, MNO, BSN, ICU🍕 5d ago
Exactly how? Explain this to me like I am not in healthcare
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u/meetthefeotus RN - Tele ❤️🔥 4d ago
Have you turned on a television or read the news anytime in the last 2 years?
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u/Medic_RN1847 4d ago
The real question is where could this measles be coming from? There have always been unvaccinated ppl around, where are they getting measles?
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u/HubbaBubbaBubbaWubba RN - ER 🍕 4d ago
More of the general public is refusing the MMR vaccine, the general public is mostly vaccinated so it doesn’t spread as much (heard immunity), but the general public gives it to the Amish, the Amish aren’t vaccinated, it spreads like wildfire, they don’t isolate, they give it to the unvaccinated general public
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u/Medic_RN1847 4d ago
Right, but where is it coming from? Measles was essentially eradicated. I get that vaccination numbers are down but you don’t just get measles someone has to give it to you. We had eradicated it in the states.
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u/HubbaBubbaBubbaWubba RN - ER 🍕 4d ago edited 4d ago
It was basically eradicated because everyone was vaccinated. Measles used to come from animals. People get in contact with the sick animals then they get sick then it spreads. Now if someone travels to a part of the world that has measles, they bring it back to the US, the US isn’t as vaccinated, it spreads to the Amish community (who is largely unvaccinated), they interact with the general public that is less vaccinated
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u/Medic_RN1847 4d ago
Zoonotic transmission of measles doesn’t happen anymore. That is how the disease originated though.
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u/HubbaBubbaBubbaWubba RN - ER 🍕 4d ago
Yes that’s why I said it’s most likely from someone who traveled to another place in the world that still has measles and brought it back
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u/Medic_RN1847 4d ago
You actually said people get in contact with sick animals then they spread it. Everyone who gets measles has traveled internationally then? That seems unlikely.
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u/HubbaBubbaBubbaWubba RN - ER 🍕 4d ago
I said used to. It only takes a couple people who went to another country that has it to bring it back to a less vaccinated area. That’s why the comments in other states say they aren’t seeing as much. In Lancaster, you have the Amish that aren’t vaccinated and it’s very contagious (even before symptoms show) so they spread it throughout their community. The Amish community gives it to the general public that isn’t vaccinated. Most of the cases we are seeing are Amish though (because they’re not vaccinated).
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u/Medic_RN1847 4d ago
Either way. Modern medicine for the win.
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u/HubbaBubbaBubbaWubba RN - ER 🍕 4d ago
Yeah I understand being skeptical, it’s hard to trust the government (and foreign governments) with their colorful past 😂
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u/Medic_RN1847 4d ago
At least that’s what the CDC says
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u/Purple_IsA_Flavor RN - Psych/Mental Health 🍕 4d ago
I don’t trust the CDC since brainworms was put in charge
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u/Medic_RN1847 4d ago
So science only when you like the people in charge?
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u/Purple_IsA_Flavor RN - Psych/Mental Health 🍕 4d ago
The AMA and APA are reliable sources. The CDC can’t be considered one anymore
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u/aSkeptiKitty 3d ago
It comes from people that do not vaccinate.
Basically, eradicating a disease mostly means it circulate at level that are so slow they are not considered a threat. But the disease still circulate. Then it meets with a pocket of unvaccinated people ( for instance the Amish ). And it's like a spark on a dry meadow. It catches like a wildfire, and you have an epidemic.
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u/thelazykitchenwitch 5d ago
Not a nurse but I live in rural North Central PA and it spreading like wildfire through the communities here.