Measles

Just back from a trip to Australia, Jeffrey Lloyd staggered into his doctor's office in January with chills, fever, breathing problems and a strange tingling in his extremities. Stumped, his Annapolis physician prescribed an antibiotic - but the symptoms grew worse.Red spots appeared on his upper torso, then spread to his toes. His face turned a disturbing shade of red, and his eyes became painfully sensitive to light. The 30-year-old Annapolis man spent three days in the hospital, but specialists there were puzzled.

PHILADELPHIA - Bob Schoelkopf knew the ocean was awash with an unknown horror when he looked at the tortured skin of the dolphins dying on the beach.The animals were pocked with eruptions that "looked like craters on the moon, but bloody, with the skin literally peeling off the body in some instances," he recalls.Ten years ago, Bob Schoelkopf was the undertaker. Into his Marine Mammal Stranding Center at Brigantine, he dragged the carcasses of dozens of dolphins killed in an unprecedented plague along the Jersey coast.

One of the great surprises of being ''a certain age,'' which is that nice French phrase for being closer in years to a crone than an ingenue, is that many of my contemporaries are still occupied with questions of love.Others have noticed it too, at greater profit. It was pointed out in the New York Times Book Review that Robert James Waller, author of the unbelieveably successful ''The Bridges of Madison County'' and two other potboilers about love during the middle years, has hit on a new genre, ''Old Adult,'' and struck a hearty chord.

Bert Booth joined when ''all my kids had measles and I couldn't stand it any longer.''Sara Engram is editorial-page director of The Evening Sun.

About 8,600 Baltimore schoolchildren who were given until late September to get immunized have not done so and will receive letters Tuesday barring them from classes, a school spokeswoman said yesterday.About 13,000 students received warning letters Sept. 6 that they had until Sept. 26 to provide proof their shots were up to date, as required by state law. Of those, about 8,600 are still listed as not complying, according to a computer tally yesterday, said school spokeswoman Robyn Washington.

The annual Safe Kids Day, sponsored by Carroll County General Hospital, will take place from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday.The first 500 families will receive a grab bag of gifts, including a first aid kit, a flying disc and informative hospital brochures.The focus is on safety with a "jaws of life" demonstration by area rescue squads.Ambulances and fire engines will be on display, and state police will use the crash simulator to show why wearing seat belts is important. Clowns will be there and face-painting offered for children.

It's perhaps the most dreaded of back-to-school needs -- shots.All schoolchildren are supposed to have their vaccinations for polio, hepatitis, measles, mumps and rubella up-to-date for the first day of classes today.On Sept. 28, the state requires all school districts to send home any students who haven't had the immunizations required at each grade level -- an annual cause for concern even in relatively well-immunized Howard County."There's no way to measure how many children still need immunizations," said Barry Trostel, assistant chief for the state's Center for Immunization.

In Tuesday's Carroll County editions, the usual timing of children's immunizations was listed incorrectly. Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis shots are usually given at 2, 4, 6 and 18 months and oral polio vaccines at 2, 4 and 18 months.* The Sun regrets the error.Six-year-old Casey Riley, waiting at the Carroll County Health Department's immunization clinic, said he's not afraid to get the shots he needs to enter kindergarten at Winfield Elementary School.But his older brother, Chad, thought he knew why not. "That's because he's never had them before," said Chad, 8, a third-grader at Winfield Elementary.

Children aren't the only ones who need vaccinations against serious illnesses. Adults need them too, say three Blue Cross and Blue Shield health maintenance organizations.Carefirst, FreeState Health Plan and Potomac Health, which have health centers in Howard County, recently mailed about 5,000 fact sheets encouraging adult immunizations. "We're doing very well with pediatric immunizations," said Greta Brand, health education manager for CFS Health Group, which manages the three HMOs. "We wanted to bring immunization a step further."

It's easy to forget that childhood diseases such as measles or mumps or whooping cough can be dangerous and even fatal. Easy, because immunizations make these diseases preventable. Childhood immunization is one of the most basic elements of any health care system -- and every dollar spent on immunizing a child saves $10 in future costs. So it says a great deal about the health care crisis in this country that one-fourth of America's pre-school children are incompletely immunized against preventable childhood diseases.

Measles, long a scourge of childhood before the development of effective vaccines, has practically disappeared in the United States. Today, most Americans either were vaccinated as children or got the disease before they entered school and are now immune. That's not the case for people who weren't born in this country, however, many of whom remain vulnerable. That's why health department officials are taking urgent steps to contain an outbreak of measles in Montgomery County, where four cases were reported this year.

Health officials said Monday that they are trying to contain Maryland's first measles outbreak since 2001, after a fourth case was diagnosed in Montgomery County. Since February, three adults and a baby have developed measles, a highly infectious viral disease characterized by a red skin rash. Most Americans are immunized against measles, which has largely disappeared in the U.S. But last year, the number of cases doubled throughout the nation, which health officials attributed mostly to people who traveled overseas and may not be inoculated or have poor immune systems.

Vaccine is critical to controlling measles Recent outbreaks of measles in the United States are related to the increasing number of parents who fail to vaccinate their children ("Measles cases at 12-year high," Aug. 22). Whether for religious or philosophical reasons, these parents put their children, as well as others, at unnecessary risk. My 4-year-old daughter is unable to be vaccinated against measles as a result of a medical condition. She and others like her depend on the rest of our community not to pass along this avoidable, potentially devastating disease.

Faced with the highest number of measles cases in a dozen years, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning parents to vaccinate their children to ward off further outbreaks. From January through July, 131 measles cases have been identified in 15 states and the District of Columbia - the most since 1996, the CDC announced yesterday. About half of the cases involve children whose parents refused to vaccinate them for religious or philosophical reasons. No cases have been detected in Maryland.

Federal health officials warned yesterday that the U.S. could be on the verge of a major outbreak of measles, a viral disease that had been declared wiped out in this country in 2000. The official tally of measles cases between Jan. 1 and April 25 totaled 64, the highest number in six years, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Another eight were reported earlier this week among members of a single family who attended a religious conference in Washington state, the CDC said.

Bush signs off on federal pay raises WASHINGTON -- President Bush signed an executive order yesterday to raise the pay of federal workers, members of Congress and Vice President Dick Cheney in the new year. Congress passed the pay raises earlier this year, but Bush was required to sign an executive order to enforce them. The president's annual salary of $400,000 is not affected by the legislation. The size of the pay raises was based on a formula in federal law that takes into account cost-of-living changes.

In the 1800s, before many physicians specialized in treating children, mothers were doctors to their families. In the 1950s, a quarter-century after pediatricians formed their own professional organization, Dr. Benjamin Spock was the guru parents turned to for advice. But the modern pediatrician has heavy competition. Parents have sleep coaches and message boards and moms' groups, Supernanny and La Leche League. With a few computer keystrokes, they can look up when their toddler should be walking or take an online quiz to see if a kindergartner might have ADHD.

Maurice Hilleman, 85, who helped develop vaccines for mumps, measles, chicken pox and other childhood scourges, died of cancer yesterday at a Philadelphia hospital. Dr. Hilleman worked for Merck & Co. Inc. for nearly 30 years before retiring in 1984 as senior vice president of Merck Research Labs. Over his career, the Montana native led or began the development of vaccines against diseases that once killed or hospitalized millions, including measles, German measles, meningitis, pneumonia and hepatitis.

A southern Maryland child recently adopted from China has been confirmed as having measles but is no longer infectious, according to state health officials. The child, whose family and community were not identified, was among a group of a dozen adopted from China. Three other children - all of whom now reside in Washington - also have been confirmed as having measles, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Maryland health officials notified hospitals and health offices across the state of the measles case late last week, said Karen Black, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

I am not a fan of ballet. Now, before you members of the Dance Community get your leotards in a bunch, let me stress that I know I am wrong. I know that ballet is a beautiful artistic form that requires great dedication and skill. I'm just saying that I, personally, would rather watch a dog catch a Frisbee. My problem -- and it's my problem, not ballet's problem -- is that, because I am culturally unsophisticated, all ballet looks to me like -- even though I know there is much more to it -- a troupe of mincing mimes.