Policy
Texas Health Officials Reject Doctor’s Plea to Recommend Measles Treatment
A Texas doctor who has successfully treated measles patients with budesonide asked state health officials to share the information with local and regional clinics and hospitals and doctor’s offices, but was told the state could only recommend the MMR vaccine for prevention.
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The New York Times and other news outlets have criticized the promotion of “unproven treatments” for measles, in the wake of a West Texas measles outbreak — even as the parents of the 6-year-old child who died in a Texas hospital after testing positive for measles told Children’s Health Defense (CHD) that their four other children had a “really good quick recovery” from measles, thanks to receiving some of those very treatments.
Dr. Ben Edwards, who visited the family after the 6-year-old died, gave the other children cod liver oil — a food-based source of vitamin A — and budesonide, a steroid used to relieve inflammation affecting the airways. The child who died did not receive either of those treatments.
Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) webpages on measles address prevention only, with no mention of possible treatments.
Getting the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is “the best way to protect against measles,” according to the CDC.
But the shot is not recommended for anyone sick with a fever, according to its package insert. Measles typically involves a high fever, according to the CDC.
So what are people — particularly children — with measles supposed to do?
Edwards told The Defender he attempted to get Texas DSHS to issue a statement on budesonide as a possible treatment for respiratory issues following a measles infection.
“I asked if they could put out a statement to the local and regional clinics and hospitals and doctor’s offices about using budesonide for acute respiratory distress because we were seeing some good results,” he said.
On March 2, Edwards spoke about the treatment with Dr. Scott Milton, the DSHS Public Health Region 1 medical director who Edwards was told was part of the “incident command staff.”
Milton told Edwards that the state’s only recommendation for measles was the MMR vaccine.
Milton “did not think that was going to be possible” for Texas DSHS to promote budesonide, Edwards said. “I asked why not and his reply was basically that he did not think the health authorities higher up in the chain of command would ‘go for that.’”
The Texas DSHS did not respond to The Defender’s request for comment by the deadline.
Budesonide requires a prescription, but that could change
According to Edwards, inhaled steroids like budesonide were traditionally used primarily for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/emphysema, so he could understand why some doctors may not readily embrace it as a treatment for measles.
“The thought was that steroids can depress the immune system and make the patient vulnerable to a secondary bacterial infection,” he said. “However, antibiotics can be given at the same time to help mitigate that risk.”
But during the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline doctors and researchers — including Oxford University scientists — found budesonide to be very helpful in mitigating respiratory inflammation.
“So, the same principle applies here,” Edwards said, referring to how measles is also a viral infection that can affect a person’s breathing.
Dr. Richard Bartlett, a West Texas emergency room physician with over 30 years of experience, was one of the frontline doctors who showed how budesonide could be used to ease respiratory inflammation from a viral infection.
His website, Budesonide Works, highlights numerous studies and reports that show the steroid’s effectiveness.
In a recent interview with The Defender, Bartlett described budesonide as “a generic, widely available inhaled corticosteroid with long-term safety data.”
Currently, it’s available only with a prescription.
However, Bartlett, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden and Substack writer Jon Fleetwood recently created a bill template to help lawmakers draft legislation to make nebulized budesonide and nebulizer machines available over-the-counter.
Bartlett said he has friends in Seminole who have been affected by measles and have benefited from budesonide. “It’s encouraging that we have some tools that are decreasing the risk of a bad outcome.”
He said:
“I am aware of four children who were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at the Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, and received nebulized budesonide. All were discharged from the ICU straight to home after receiving budesonide treatments.”
One of the children was discharged only 36 hours after receiving budesonide, he said.
Bartlett said it concerns him that the current measles outbreak in West Texas appears to cause more hypoxia — low blood oxygen levels — than what one would expect based on looking at how measles is described in medical textbooks.
“This seems more virulent than what we historically think of as measles,” he said.
Typically, medical textbooks list rash, fever and cough as measles’ main symptoms, Bartlett said. “Unfortunately, this [measles in West Texas] is causing coughing, shortness of breath and predisposition to secondary bacterial pneumonia.”
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Texas hospital gives immunoglobulin to babies
Although the CDC doesn’t list treatments for measles, it lists two kinds of prophylaxis, or disease prevention, for unvaccinated people who have been exposed to the virus.
The first option is to get an MMR vaccine within 72 hours of exposure to measles.
The second option is to receive immunoglobulin within six days of exposure.
The CDC states, “The recommended dose for intramuscular immunoglobulin (IMIG) is 0.5mL/kg [milliliters per kilogram], regardless of the contact’s immune status.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, immunoglobulin is an antibody that “can prevent measles or make symptoms less severe” if given within six days of exposure to the virus.
The use of immunoglobulin in babies recently garnered national attention when NBC on March 14 reported that staff at the University Medical Center (UMC) Children’s Hospital in Lubbock were “giving babies as young as three days old injections of immunoglobulin.”
According to NBC, the babies were exposed to measles when a woman who was infected with measles gave birth at the hospital on March 12.
However, the hospital refuted that claim. In a statement to The Defender, the hospital said the patient “began exhibiting symptoms associated with the measles” but was immediately moved to an isolated room.
“The patient did not have direct contact with other patients during their stay,” the statement said.
When The Defender asked if any babies at the hospital had been given immunoglobulin, UMC Health System’s Vice President & Chief Experience Officer Aaron Davis said:
“Out of abundance of caution, we proactively offered a small number of patients who were admitted to the same floor during this time prophylaxis, again in consultation with the county health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
The Defender asked Katherine Wells, director of Lubbock Public Health, what she recommended as prevention or treatment of measles for people who cannot or choose not to get the MMR vaccine.
“From a public health perspective my focus is on prevention and offering the MMR to everyone in the community,” Wells said. “I understand that there are many reasons why people are not vaccinated. For those the goal is to reduce their exposure to the virus.”
Wells added, “Another prevention option is measles immunoglobulin to young children and babies who have been exposed.”
However, some criticized giving immunoglobulin to kids and infants.
Dr. Suzanne Humphries, co-author of “Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and The Forgotten History,” said that giving immunoglobulin and then later getting infected with measles “is a set-up for causing an incomplete immunologic response to the infection which can set the person up for chronic diseases.”
“So while those people may think they are doing something good in the presence of circulating measles,” Humphries said, “it is a very dangerous thing to do.”
Brian Hooker, Ph.D., CHD’s chief scientific officer, agreed.
Immunoglobulin therapy may partially neutralize circulating pathogens, such as the measles virus, Hooker said. “This will dampen the innate immune response.”
Related articles in The Defender- CHD.TV Exclusive: Parents of Child Who Died During Texas Measles Outbreak Speak Out
- Exclusive: Mennonite Community in Texas Is ‘Frustrated’ by Media Coverage of Measles Outbreak
- Exclusive: ‘Just Normal Doctoring’ — a Texas Doctor’s Eyewitness Report on Measles Outbreak
- Media Panic Over Measles Distracts From Real Threats to Kids’ Health and Safety
- Texas Reports Death of Child Who Tested Positive for Measles, But Releases Few Details
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