Fever? Red rash?

While most of us have probably been innoculated against the measles, or gotten it in childhood, there’s at least one person on the Eastside who hasn’t, and who spent last week unintentionally spreading it around town. So if you live or work around here, you haven’t had the measles, and you haven’t been feeling good, there’s possibly a good reason.

Why are we so excited about measles? Some complications of measles include encephalitis, bronchopneumonia, and meningitis. This combined with the recent sending of our children back to school, creates a more-than-likely chance that reports of measles will be making it into the news all through fall.

For future reference for you oldsters out there, the general recommendations in non-plague situations are as follows:

• If you were born before 1957, you’ve probably had the measles, as it was quite common in those days, along with having to walk uphill, through the snow. Relax! We don’t think you’ll get it again.
  
• If you were born after 1956, and you got an inactivated-measles-virus vaccine in the early 1960s or an inactivated-mumps-virus vaccine between 1950 and 1978; you might need revaccination with two doses of the live MMR vaccine. (This will cause no harm even if someone had a previous live-virus-mumps vaccination.)
  

In the meantime, if anyone coughs or sneezes on you, it’s probably not an overreaction to run screaming from the room and dunk yourself into a 10 percent bleach solution. Well, ok, maybe it is.