04/12/2014
Dr. Jay Gordon also sent out an email. Here's what he had to say about it. " Our office has received a large number of phone calls and emails about measles.
There are 21 reported cases in Orange County. I'm not aware of the number of cases in our immediate area.
In July, 2014, we celebrate the 30th year at 901 Montana and we have never had a child in our office contract measles. As many of you know, I use the MMR vaccine more sparingly than most pediatricians so I'm a bit surprised that the number is zero, but it is.
The media, as they often do, are covering this story quite heavily and the headlines make it appear that there is imminent great danger. In fact, the last fatality from measles in the USA was eleven years ago in 2003. Headlines speak of "ten times more measles in 2014." The newspaper articles often don't mention that California had very few cases of measles in the past five years so the 35 cases reported among 38,000,000 Californians is not a frighteningly large numerical jump. There have been about 80 cases of measles in the United States this year. All of these cases began with importation by travelers and then spread to close contacts. Measles is unlikely to be spread by a brief encounter or sharing a BART train.
The CDC defines outbreak as two cases spread from the same source. "
