Johnson County Post: 50 years ago, this Olathe woman had measles. She's still living with its complications
By Kaylie McLaughlin
Adopted from Korea in the late 1960s, Suzanne Johnson just doesn’t know a lot about the story of her early life.
One thing she does know for sure is that, before she came to the U.S. at age 3, she had measles, and the illness left its mark on her forever. She developed Bell’s Palsy, a rare type of partial facial paralysis that is often temporary.
For Johnson, the paralysis that affects the left side of her face has been permanent, and, according to the minimal medical records she’s been able to access from before her adoption, it was caused by having measles as a toddler.
The condition makes it hard for her to control the left side of her mouth. And her left eye doesn’t close all the way, leading to chronic dryness.
As of April 30, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has confirmed 46 cases of measles spread across eight counties in the state. The majority of those cases were documented in people who are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated, according to the Kansas health department.
While those cases have been concentrated in southwestern and south-central Kansas, public health experts in Johnson County and the metropolitan area all agreed that the probability is high that a case will pop up here.
Dr. Doug Swanson, an infectious disease physician at Children’s Mercy, also stressed that measles infections are to be taken seriously.
“It’s not just like a simple virus, where you may be uncomfortable for a couple of days,” Swanson said. “They can be quite miserable with the measles infection, and it has some significant complications.”
Read the full article via the Johnson County Post