Is this Round 2 of a new Pandemic?

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Although this thread has been focused on Antibiotic Resistance Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Pneumoni (MPP) in children. There is another piece to the puzzle. It is another bacteria infection called Measles. These two infections go hand-in-hand together.

Patricia A. Stinchfield, RN, MS, CPNP, president, National Foundation of Infectious Diseases (NFID) describes this link between two childhood infections. In fact, she oversaw 3 outbreaks, and says that when young children come in with measles, they are “some of the sickest children.”

“They will come in very dehydrated. They are photophobic, and their eyes hurt and are very red. They need to stay in a dark room. They need IV fluids, they have severe diarrhea, and often they'll have otitis media or ear infections.”

One recent article says, “They often will have pneumonia and that is the reason that people succumb to measles—both viral measles pneumonia in the lungs itself and then secondary bacterial infection,” stated Stinchfield. “So 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who get measles will get hospitalized. And 1 in 20 children with measles will get this pneumonia described…One in 1000 who get measles will develop a severe encephalitis that they might survive. Everyone talks about well, very few people die of measles, but even those who survive it, they can get this encephalitis and develop seizures.”

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There was another important piece to the puzzle in this article:

In terms of treatment, there haven’t been any FDA approved medical therapies to relieve symptoms; however, vitamin A has been identified as a treatment for measles.

“All children or adults with measles should receive 2 doses of vitamin A supplements, given 24 hours apart. This restores low vitamin A levels that occur even in well-nourished children. It can help prevent eye damage and blindness. Vitamin A supplements may also reduce the number of measles deaths,” WHO writes on its site.

Source: Measles Outbreaks: How Complacency Associated With Immunizations and COVID-19 are Driving Increases

India is battling outbreaks of childhood pneumonia.

Source: 25k kids found suffering from pneumonia in FY23

New Delhi: Nearly 25,000 children under five years of age were found suffering from pneumonia during an assessment of 2,450,000 children in Delhi from Nov 12 to Feb 28 in financial year 2022-23, according to the economic survey of Delhi 2023-24.

Of the 24,138 children, 6,143 suffering from severe pneumonia were treated by admission while 17,995 were treated in OPD during the four-month-long “social awareness and actions to neutralize pneumonia successfully (SAANS)” campaign.

At least 687 children (1-12 months old) and 301 children (1-5 years old) died due to pneumonia in 2022-23

Although this thread has been focused on pneumonia deaths in young children; the threat is part of a larger picture. It is a string effect. When it occurs, it is an array of various infections that are co-joined together. One of these is measles.

What are complications of measles?

Measles is serious for all age groups, however the following groups are most likely to have complications: Children under 5, adults older than 20, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems.

Common complications from measles include ear infections and diarrhea. There are also more severe complications that could require hospitalization, which can include pneumonia and encephalitis, or a swelling of the brain.

One to three of every 1,000 children who are infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications, the CDC says.

Source: What is measles? Is it dangerous? What to know about symptoms, vaccines amid recent outbreak

There is a fused relationship between the outbreak of pneumonia and other illnesses including measles in children.

Some cases of measles can be mild, but up to half of infected children may need medical attention, said Dr. David Sugerman, who leads the measles team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children with measles may develop diarrhea and dehydration, pneumonia that leads to long-term respiratory difficulties, and brain inflammation that results in neurological problems, Dr. Sugerman said.

For every 1,000 cases in children, one child may become deaf or intellectually disabled, and one to three may die. Deaths from measles rose worldwide by 43 percent between 2021 and 2022, according to a report in November from the W.H.O. and the C.D.C.

Measles is among the most contagious infections, and the virus can linger in the air for up to two hours. “It is so contagious that if one person has it, up to 90 percent of the people close to him or her will also become infected if they are not protected,” Dr. Sugerman said.

The disease is characterized by respiratory symptoms, fever, conjunctivitis and a rash that can be mistaken for roseola, scarlet fever or other viral infections.

Source: Europe Faces a Measles Outbreak

There is an outbreak underway in Canada.

If there was an award for most contagious virus, measles would be a frontrunner. It can hang in the air for hours, and one infected person will pass it on to almost everyone around them who’s unvaccinated. One in five people infected require hospitalization, and nearly one in 300 infected children die. Long-term complications include pneumonia, blindness, ear infection–induced deafness and even a potentially fatal neurological disorder called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.

Source: What comes next for Canada’s measles surge

Because measles and Polio have been limited to a few cases among the unvaccinated we assume that these vaccines unlike the COVID one both prevents transmission and prevents us from catching it for the remainder of our lives. Is this true or is it full herd immunity? We are beginning to embark on an unwanted and uncontrolled scientific experiment not only with measles but a whole bunch of diseases. Most of us have not been vaccinated against certain diseases since childhood. Have those vaccines over all this time not lost some or all of their effectiveness?

These are very good questions. In general, serious bacterial infections can be effectively treated with antibiotics. These medicines either kill the bacteria or stop them multiplying. But viruses are smaller and cannot be treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics have been used for millennia to treat infections, although until the last century or so people did not know the infections were caused by bacteria. Various molds and plant extracts were used to treat infections by some of the earliest civilizations – the ancient Egyptians, for example, applied moldy bread to infected wounds. Nevertheless, until the 20th century, infections that we now consider straightforward to treat – such as pneumonia and diarrhea – that are caused by bacteria, were the number one cause of human death in the developed world.

It wasn’t until the late 19th century that scientists began to observe antibacterial chemicals in action. Paul Ehrlich, a German physician, noted that certain chemical dyes colored some bacterial cells but not others. He concluded that, according to this principle, it must be possible to create substances that can kill certain bacteria selectively without harming other cells. In 1909, he discovered that a chemical called arsphenamine was an effective treatment for syphilis. This became the first modern antibiotic.

That same treatment option is not available for virus infections. Viruses are smaller cells. They cannot be treated the same way.

One of the problems in recent years is that antibiotics are being overused and many have lost their ability to heal bacterial infections. They have become antibiotic resistant. As a result many types of bacterial infections that were cured are now coming back into the world.

Pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics but measles, a virus, cannot. Towards the end of 2023 many young children crowed hospitals in China. Many of them had a variety of viral infections. But also many also went on to develop pneumonia. Although it was hidden, many of these children died. This was reported by the workers in China who performed cremations. Was this due to an antibiotic resistant form of pneumonia? If so, this type of pneumonia will spread and spread during the next few years and encompass the entire world. We will be making a great leap back in time.

This pandemic is not quite over with yet. It is effecting children.

On a sweltering afternoon in Hong Kong, homemaker Shirley Lee watches over her son and daughter at a playground in Causeway Bay, holding on to their backpacks, water bottles and masks.

“I make them wear a mask except in open-air places. The influenza viruses and germs are spreading everywhere these days,” said the 40-year-old, who was masked herself.

“My children have been taking turns to fall ill, far more frequently than in pre-Covid times, so our doctor recommended wearing a mask in crowded places.”

A year after the city lifted its Covid-19 pandemic mask rules, some Hongkongers have continued wearing the face coverings, especially on public transport and even on the street.

Experts said the heightened health awareness helped to shield the city from the recent flu surge.

Source: Why so many young Hongkongers continue to mask up long after Covid restrictions have eased