School in Erftstadt closed because of measles

Measles outbreak at Walldorf School in Erftstadt

07/05/2013

Because of a measles outbreak in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, a school had to be closed yesterday. At the free Waldorf School Erftstadt several students are ill, so that the health department sent all 396 students home for security reasons. Already on Monday informed the headmaster, Matthias Nantke, the authorities that three siblings suffered from measles. Since then, other children have been ill.

Measles spread in the Rhein-Erftkreis
After first of all Bavaria and Berlin were affected by the outbreak of the measles, the disease now seems to spread in North Rhine-Westphalia. Like Franz-Josef Schuba, director of the health department in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, opposite the newspaper „Rheinische Post“ announced that three siblings aged 16, 18 and 19 from the municipality of Vettweiß had been infected by contact with a Munich family whose environment also included measles. The pupils concerned visit the free forest village school Erftstadt, which was then closed for safety reasons. „Since then, seven more students have been infected. And we reckon that there will be more hourly, "said Schuba After checking the vaccination passes by employees of the health department was „a vaccination quota of only 26 percent. "Therefore, the school will remain closed until next Tuesday. „Not only the students, but also our 40 colleagues first have to clarify their vaccination status. Until then, no lessons can take place, "said Alfons Thelen-Brücher, spokesman for the Waldorf School Erftstadt, the newspaper.

Jan Leidel, chairman of the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), told the paper that there were only 30 cases until the current measles outbreak in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2012, only 166 measles cases were registered. However, by 30 June, 1,073 people have suffered from measles this year. Most illnesses occurred with 478 cases in Bavaria and with more than 400 in Berlin. The high number is „not dramatic, but annoying and depressing, "says Leidel. „The fluctuations are not unusual, but disappointing after the good numbers of 2012. "

Adolescents and adults are often not vaccinated against measles
As Martin Terhardt from the Association of Pediatricians in Germany (BVKJ) told the newspaper, the main problem is not that infants are not vaccinated, but rather in the lack of vaccine protection of adolescents and adults. He advises adults and children to have their vaccination status checked and to be vaccinated quickly if there is a lack of vaccine protection. „If this happens within three days, you can significantly reduce the course of the disease, "says Terhardt.

„The high number of measles diseases in Germany shows that the current vaccination concepts are not effective enough“, warned Wolfram Hartmann, President of the BVKJ. „We need binding rules to ensure that all children have evidence of age-appropriate immunization before admission to a day care center, so that they are vaccinated according to the current recommendations of STIKO, which represent the scientific standard in Germany, unless there are medical contraindications for vaccination be present.“

Also Minister of Health Daniel Bahr (FDP) had recently spoken out for the introduction of a vaccination against measles. It was irresponsible if parents did not have their children vaccinated, said the politician. Leidel does not see that as a solution. „Our society is skeptical of any compulsion. This would make a duty counterproductive. "He also asked himself the question of what consequences should follow in the event of non-compliance.

Measles can cause serious illnesses
Although measles are dangerous infectious diseases, they are often played down as a childhood disease. But especially in older and immunocompromised patients, severe disease courses can occur, for example, with pneumonia. But even healthy, young people can contract a life-threatening measles infection. The so-called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE, generalized inflammation of the brain with nerve demyelination) causes severe damage and inevitably leads to the death of the patient. About every tens of thousands of patients are affected as a consequence of this. One in 1,000 patients is also suffering from life-threatening encephalitis.

The incubation period of SSPE is several years. First of all, the affected persons lose their brain nerve cells, which are manifested by mental and intellectual changes and dropouts. Then epileptic seizures and failures of important nerve functions occur until the patient dies in the last stage of the disease. (Ag)

Image: Cornelia Menichelli