By the time we got there, 60 had already died. I saw the devastation measles causes and have seen why vaccination is so important
Physiotherapist reveals horror of outbreak to back vaccination drive
Five years ago there was not a single confirmed measles case in Scotland. In 2018, there were two. Last year? 14.
At the same time the uptake for the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine appears to be slowing. Statistics in 2019 show uptake was for the most part just below the recommended 95% needed to keep the population protected.
Measles may once have been a common childhood illness, but it has serious complications that can kill – such as pneumonia and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
Gaelle Smith has witnessed first-hand the devastation caused by measles. Gaelle, 35, who works at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children, was among a team of 13 British doctors, nurses and physiotherapists who treated children hit by a measles epidemic on Samoa.
The small Pacific island reported at the end of December that 5,667 people, 2% of its population, had contracted the highly contagious virus that left 81 dead – many of them children younger than four. It declared a national emergency and carried out mass immunisation.
Physiotherapist Gaelle was part of the UK Emergency Medical Team, funded by UK Aid and supported by charity Humanity and Inclusion, that went to their aid. She said: “When we arrived, about 60 patients had already died and most of those were beneath the age of four. I saw 10 children die in just over two weeks.
“Seeing that many pass away from measles-related complications was really difficult.
“In the first week I arrived I saw 90-110 children referred for chest physiotherapy. All had complicated measles or pneumonia.
“With pneumonia they have a consolidation stage – all the secretions in their lungs are so thick they are cemented together and you cannot shift them without several days of antibiotics.
“This is one of the biggest childhood killers worldwide.
“My job was to try to help get it coughed and cleared or, in children who do not have that ability, to suction it out. The big concern with chest infection is the work of breathing, and respiratory distress will be more of a life risk to them than any other issue.
Children below 18 months will always go into respiratory arrest before they go into cardiac arrest.”
Teams from around the world worked around the clock alongside Samoans. Gaelle said 95% of those treated survived.
“There was one two-year-old boy, Anitelea, who was in the intensive care unit with significant pneumonia,” she said. “I treated him throughout his recovery. He went home after Christmas, having been admitted over a month before. His family had already lost one young son to measles.
“Measles is something we thankfully haven’t had to see a lot of in the UK in recent years. However, there are outbreaks all the time. So we are not immune to them because historically we have had good vaccination rates and haven’t had huge outbreaks.
“Vaccines are safe, have been shown to be effective and are ultimately the best form of defence against infectious preventable diseases.
“Ultimately it will always be a parent’s or carer’s decision on whether there is uptake, but the risk of not giving them is important. People should seek the right advice from their GP or the correct medical professionals.”