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Alpena District Health professional explains the importance of measles vaccinations

ALPENA, MICH — Measles are on the rise across the U.S. It’s no secret that part of the reason is growing skepticism of vaccines. But according to health professionals, the pros of the vaccine far outweigh the cons.
Registered nurse Francesca Kutschman at District Health Department Number 4 in Alpena, says she respects every person’s decision on whether to get vaccinated, but the topic is not to be taken lightly.

“So, as a medical professional, especially doctors, doctors take an oath to do no harm, and we always outweigh the benefit verses the risk. When you’re talking about measles, the true viral infection, you’re subject to complications such as paralysis, pneumonia, blindness, deafness, death. Very serious complications. Where as with the vaccine, most people don’t have many side effects from the vaccine, and they build appropriate immunity.”

Kutschman says the vaccine does has side effects, just like many other medications: pain or a slight rash at the injection site, or low grade fever; But exposing yourself to the vaccine will decrease your chance of getting the virus to only three percent if exposed to someone with a confirmed case.

Kutschman leaves community members with this to think about.

“It’s going to continue to spread, and we’re going to continue to see the increase in numbers for measles cases, which is very detrimental for a community, especially for children ages five years and younger, and adults 20 years and over. There are a lot of complications from this disease, it’s not something that should be taken lightly. We hear a lot that people state things like, ‘Well I had the measles and nothing happened. Well you were very fortunate that nothing happened.”