US Is Slipping Toward Measles Being Endemic Once Again, Says Study (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: With firm vaccination campaigns, the US eliminated measles in 2000. The highly infectious virus was no longer constantly present in the country -- no longer endemic. Since then, measles has only popped up when travelers carried it in, spurring mostly small outbreaks -- ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred cases each year -- that then fizzle out. But all that may be about to change. With the rise of non-medical vaccine exemptions and delays, the country is backsliding toward endemic measles, Stanford and Baylor College of Medicine researchers warn this week. With extensive disease modeling, the researchers make clear just how close we are to seeing explosive, perhaps unshakeable, outbreaks. According to results the researchers published in JAMA Pediatrics, a mere five-percent slip in measles-mumps-and-rubella (MMR) vaccination rates among kids aged two to 11 would triple measles cases in this age group and cost $2.1 million in public healthcare costs. And that's just a small slice of the disease transmission outlook. Kids two to 11 years old only make up about 30 percent of the measles cases in current outbreaks. The number of cases would be much larger if the researchers had sufficient data to model the social mixing and immunization status of adults, teens, and infants under two.

Comments

Re:People Don't Remember

[rhsanborn]

This isn't good enough for children with rare diseases and childhood cancers that don't allow them to get vaccination. Vaccination isn't just about my kid, it's a social policy designed to protect others as well.

Re:People Don't Remember

[MightyYar]

It would be great if libertarian principles applied to vaccines (my base ideology is libertarian), but:
1. Vaccines are not anywhere near 100% effective, so even a fully vaccinated person may be relying on herd immunity.
2. You can't vaccinate a newborn, so everyone relies on herd immunity for the first 6 months or so of their life.
3. Some people can't be vaccinated at all.

So we're left with a social solution, which is vaccinating everyone who can be vaccinated, whether they like it or not.

Re:Unvaccinated third-world illegal aliens

[Nidi62]

The problem isn't unvaccinated illegal aliens. The issue is a lot of parents in the US aren't vaccinating their kids because Jenny McCarthy and people like her scare them into thinking vaccines are evil. So, when people visit to/from places where diseases such as measels are still endemic they bring the diseases with them and spread them among the unvaccinated population here (a lot of whom tend to be clustered together since people with anti-vaccination beliefs tend to have certain other political or religious beliefs and live in communities with others who share those beliefs). Illegal immigration is a very small factor, if at all. And if the US and Europe would put in a proper refugee system, a lot of those people you mentioned would have proper medical screenings and be provided food, housing, and education/employment; allowing them to become productive members of a society they literally risked their lives for to join.