NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A preventable illness has returned to Tennessee.
Tennessee health officials are raising the alarm after confirming a case of measles in the Nashville area — the state’s first since 2005 — and warned that falling vaccination rates could open the door for more.
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Measles is not the mild childhood memory some imagine. It begins with fever, red eyes and a dry cough, and then moves quickly to a rash that can cover the body. It can lead to pneumonia, ear infections and even swelling of the brain.
“Measles is a very nasty virus,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, said. “Before we had the measles vaccine in the United States, every year 400 to 500 children died of measles and its complications.”…