Measles Monday!!

We came into the hospital today and found that the gastro ward was turned into the measles quarantine area. A while ago, there were a few confirmed measles cases up north, near the Angola border. This made the news, so now any patient with a cough and a rash gets admitted with "probable measles." None of our cases our confirmed yet, and I don't think any of them will be. We haven't seen any koplick spots or any impressive conjunctivitis. And none of them are from the north; all of the "measles" patients live in Windhoek, most in the slums of Katutura. I am pretty sure all of our patients just have colds with viral exanthums. We have sent out measles IgM on all of the suspected cases, but they take a long time to come back. For the sake of everyone's sanity, the IgMs better come back soon. We are going to run out of beds for the actually sick patients! Both Stacey and I know that people with measles don't need to be admitted unless they have complications, but its hard to get that through to all of the interns and the outside docs. And yes, Mom, we are washing our hands frequently and wearing masks on rounds (even though we should be immune.)