In the south of the United States, a measles epidemic is underway which has already caused over 500 ascertained contagions, dozens of hospitalizations and a death. The solution (and also applies to our country where last year we had a thousand cases of measles), it would be to focus on vaccinations: investing in communication to bring the covers above 95 percent recommended by WHO as a threshold necessary to establish an immunity of flock. Not everyone agrees, of course. And when the health secretary is skeptical, the effects are felt quickly: in recent weeks, in fact, the doctors of several texan hospitals have observed an unusual increase in hospitalizations for vitamin A, anti-Morbillo remedy recommended by the current American administration, for which, unlike the vaccines, there are very little evidence of efficacy (at least as home therapy), and of which it is relatively easy to abuse, With serious risks for health.
The “American dream” is worth only if you are healthy
The reports come from several Texan counties, such as that of Lubbock, in the north-west of the state, where the doctors of the Covenant Children’s Hospital have revealed to the media that they have hospitalized several children in recent weeks with liver damage caused by excessive consumption of vitamin A.
“If the population has the erroneous impression that there is a choice between trivalent vaccine and vitamin A The result will be many avoidable cases of measles among the youngest. And it is a big problem, especially during an epidemic,” he told the microphones of the Cnn Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. “In addition, you find yourself dealing with an unregulated medicine in terms of doses of administration and toxicity”.
Explosion of measles cases: a child died
Among the main promoters of vitamin A as therapy and as a form of prevention for measles there is the current American health secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., who in recent weeks has publicly recommended on several occasions the use of cod liver oil (a supplement full of vitamin A) to combat food deficiencies that would worsen the outcome of the infections. By not recommending, on the other hand, the use of vaccination, which is instead the only form of scientifically proven prevention towards the disease: with the second dose of vaccine, the risk of infection can be reduced by 97 percent.
Evidently, too many parents took the words of the defense secretary for good. Unshabilious of the dangers that can put the excessive use of vitamin A supplements in the little ones: this liposoluble compound can accumulate in the body, and in case of prolonged intake comes to cause disorders such as dry skin, blurred vision, bone problems and liver toxicity.
The hospitalizations caused by vitamin A
Vitamin A can actually be used in the hospital for the treatment of some patients with serious forms of measles. But its home use is considered useless by experts – both for prevention and for measles therapy – and dangerous, precisely for the problems of involuntary overdose that caused hospitalizations among texan children.
“Recovery for patients with acute toxicity is usually very rapid when the intake of vitamin A is suspended,” he explained to the Cnn The Texan Pediatrician Lesley Motheral. “Unfortunately, however, some of the most serious problems caused by these intoxications are not always reversible”.