West Texas doctors are seeing measles patients whose illness is complicated by alternative therapy approved by vaccine skeptics, including health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Parents in Gaines County, Texas, are at the heart of the outbreak of turbulent measles, many of which have become increasingly repurposed and unproven treatments to protect children who have not been vaccinated against the virus.
One of those supplements is Vitamin A, which Kennedy advertises as a miraculous treatment for measles. Doctors at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, say they have treated a small number of children who were given so much vitamin A, which has signs of liver damage.
Dr. Summer Davis, who cares for children with acute illnesses at the hospital, said some of them had been receiving unsafe supplements for weeks to prevent measles infection.
“We were sick for just a few days, five days, five days, and five days, but we had been taking it for about three weeks,” Dr. Davis said.
Doctors may manage severe measles by administering high doses of vitamin A in hospitals, but experts do not recommend taking it without supervision from a doctor. Vitamin A is not an effective way to prevent measles. However, two doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are about 97% effective.
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