Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Itchy Kai

**UPDATE: Doctor says it's an unknown viral infection. Apparently not contagious anymore. Jackie: he could get measles even though he's vaccinated, it happens in 5% of cases. Yay, we can still go on holidays!!!**


Someone is sad.
He has a rash from head to toe (I overexposed his face so you can't really see the rash on his face...he wanted to have a sad face:)).
It started on Saturday and has gotten progressively worse. I can't think of a single thing that could have caused it. He hasn't eaten anything new and the only place he went that Koen did not was the hot tub (but he's been in there many times with no reaction). It's itchy.
Heading to the doctor this afternoon because I want to make sure he's not contagious AND we leave on holidays soon!!
Has anyone seen a rash like this on their kids before? Head to toe?

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:25 PM

    measels??

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  2. Anonymous2:51 PM

    looks viral

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  3. amy's had bumpy rough skin-at times red bumps for the past week or so.
    ??Part of a virus??-its along with boogery, whiny, not-her-usual-self amy...
    She's quite red and raw around her mouth, and I attribute that to teething, but that wouldn't describe poor kai.
    Interested to see what the doctor says...

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  4. not measles. :) Yay for MMR!

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  5. ah weezer...Firstly don't believe everything you read on the internet - unless it's from a reputable source. Secondly, yes you can get measles, even after having had the vaccine. Thirdly, think of how much greater of a chance that it could have been measles if there was no vaccine (or think of all the people who haven't gotten measles because of it!). I know. I'm preachin' to the choir. sorry ;).

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  6. 5% of cases? Ah, I seem to learn something every day. Sorry, I didn't see a citation for that statistic; where did you get that from? ;)

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  7. Tyler: The proportion of secondary vaccine failures appears to be low: 2% in a study in China (Zhuji 1987)
    and 5% in a study in Canada (Mathias et al. 1989).
    (Taken from page 11 of a report put out by the World Health Organization http://www.who.int/vaccines-documents/DocsPDF-IBI-e/mod7_e.pdf). Maybe I misread but just stating that vaccines are not 100%:)

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  8. Oops, I should clarify that that specific stat is for measles in particular. There are other world health organization reports that show similar results:
    Pg. 40 of http://www.who.int/vaccines-documents/DocsPDF01/www617.pdf

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  9. Ouch. 1987/1989 = over 20 years ago...good thing things have improved...From the Public Health Agency of Canada, if 2 doses are given, it's more likely 100% protection!: "The efficacy of the measles vaccine increases with age at immunization. The main mechanism explaining poor efficacy in children immunized at an early age is the interference by maternal antibody. These antibodies are transferred from the mother to the fetus in utero, and their levels slowly decrease after birth. Most infants have lost their maternal antibody by 12 months of age, but studies have shown that immunization at 15 months of age gives higher numbers of protected individuals. Maternal antibodies are not the only factor in vaccine failure, as the protection appears to reach a plateau after 15 months of age. The efficacy of a single dose given at 12 or 15 months is esti mated to be 85% to 95%. With a second dose, almost 100% of children are protected."
    http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/cig-gci/p04-meas-roug-eng.php

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