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

Posted by BeauHD on from the cause-and-effect dept.

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.

5 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Looking at calendar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Medically - politically - I have to look at the calendar everyday because it feels like I'm in a time warp and it's really 1917.

    We, the USA, are getting dumber.

  2. People Don't Remember by Luthair · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the issue is that most people alive today of childbearing age have no experience with how awful the diseases that plagued our ancestors were which leaves them with wiggle room to accept doubt from dumbass celebrities.

    1. Re:People Don't Remember by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  3. Re:Vaccination Rates *and* Autism Rates are slippi by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Informative

    Autism rates have been on the decline, and this decline started when vaccination rates began their decline.

    1) Not a decline, more like a plateau. It's also very recent, and doesn't correspond with the rise of the anti-vax campaigns, which happened years earlier.
    2) Autism rates did not increase when vaccinations were introduced; again, the rise in autism only happened later--in this case, decades later.
    3) Correlation is not causation.

    Not that you will read any of this. You've reached your conclusion, and evidence that doesn't fit it will be ignored.

  4. The answer is straightforward by DrXym · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mandate which vaccinations children are required to have to avail of private / public daycare and schools. And make the parents criminally liable if the child or someone he/she comes into contact with contracts a preventable disease because of their negligence.