Archive: Opinions

Earlier this month on our flight home to Ithaca from a funeral down south my wife and I were exposed to measles.  I know this because the Tompkins County Health Department contacted my wife to alert her.  This was several days after we had arrived home, and evidently it was too late to inoculate us, so every day for ten days they have been calling or texting her to ask whether we are exhibiting any symptoms.

This is impressive.  My usual feeling is that any time you tangle with the government you're in for a lot of aggravation, but in this case I am impressed that the Health Department not only caught on that someone on the plane was contagious, but that they take the time to call everyone who was exposed each day until the danger is passed.

I had measles when I was a kid, so I don't think I was at risk.  I have taken my temperature and checked for rashes, but once you have had measles you can't get them again.  However, if I did get them at my age it would be quite serious.  I remember my father got measles when he was in his 30s, and it was not like when a kid gets them. He was bed-ridden.  Measles can be life-threatening to adults, causing pneumonia or infecting your brain, among other nasty symptoms, including death.

The good news was this was the 1960s when house calls were not unheard of and especially if your doctor was Uncle Eli.

Uncle Eli was a small man, but had a lot of personality.  He had a big car, and when he drove past our house on Greenwood Street it looked like the car was driving itself because you could barely see him in the driver's seat.  He insulted the people he liked.  If he didn't insult you... watch out!  He lived around the corner from us.  My mother  told me he was a renowned pediatrician and diagnostician.  To me he was just Undcle Eli, who sometimes stuck me with needles, but gave me a lollypop and a good dollop of insults afterward.

Uncle Eli was so concerned that he would stop by the house to check on Dad every morning on the way to work and on his way home later in the day.  This was too long ago for me to remember exactly -- I do have an image of Dad in bed and him being mostly off limits to us kids -- to remember, but it is not a stretch to think that some of those times he came bearing jelly rolls, his wife Aunt Edith's trademark desert.  With care like that Dad had no choice but to recover.

With vaccines that they didn't have when I was a kid measles is not that much of an issue in the United States any more, but it is a problem world wide, and there is always a risk that a traveler will bring it here.  The World Health Organization (WHO) reports, "There were over 82,500 measles cases in Europe in 2018 . This is more than three times as many as in 2017, and 15 times as many as in 2016. In 2016 and 2017 there were 49 deaths from measles in Europe, and 2018 saw another 72 deaths."

I am about twice the age my Dad was when he suffered measles, so it is lucky for me that I already had them since I'm not so old that death by measles wouldn't still be a major inconvenience for me!  When I had them as a kid I remember my Mom constantly admonishing me, "Don't scratch!"  And getting out of going to school for a while.  But mostly the splotches and the itch.

It is a very good thing that the Health Department is on the ball.  Because even though I had them as a kid, maybe some of the other passengers didn't.  And house calls are pretty much a thing of the past and Uncle Eli and Aunt Edith are no longer with us.  So these calls may seem like a minor annoyance for the recipients and a major effort for the Health Department, but, in fact, they could literally save lives.

So kudos to the Tompkins County Health Department. We're lucky to have them.  (And I am lucky to not have measles.)

v15i40