Why One Family With Measles Is Reconsidering Their Anti-Vax Position

People on social media pilloried them as the “measles family” after they became infected with the virus during their Disneyland vacation and brought the disease back to their hometown of Kearny, Arizona.

Now, after exposing an estimated 1,000 people to the virus, Jannae Yslas-Roach, a 32-year-old mother of four, explained her family’s side of the story in an in-depth interview with The Arizona Republic about the family’s ordeal.

Yslas-Roach told The Arizona Republic that the variation and ambiguousness of their measles symptoms, as well as doctors’ unfamiliarity or lack of urgency when faced with potential measles cases, resulted in delays in diagnosing. This left the family more opportunities to expose others to the disease over several weeks in January. In all, because family members made multiple trips to different health centers or ran errands, the group is thought to have exposed about 1,000 people in Arizona to the virus, including those too young or immunocompromised to get the vaccine.

Learn more about the signs and symptoms of measles, as well as its complications, in the graphic below.

Graphics by Alissa Scheller for The Huffington Post.

The Huffington Post