The Importance of Measles Vaccination

As a young girl, I remember waiting in line at the nurse’s station at Redondo Elementary School to get, “the shot”. This shot in 1971 was given to every student within my school and to this day the permeant scare remains. It is a reminder of a contagious disease spread by a virus. A disease so contagious that when someone has it, 90% of the people around them who aren’t immune will also catch it. So serious that one in four people who contract it will need to be hospitalized. This ailment is Measles.

Measles is a highly infectious disease where one person can infect up to 18 other people, and the virus floats in the air for up to two (maybe four) hours where an infectious person has been. Additionally, a person is infectious 3 to 5 days before the onset of the typical measles rash, and 1 to 2 days before the onset of fever. This means that a perfectly healthy-looking person can go around spreading measles and not even know they’re sick. Because of this, measles likely spreads as people with the disease encounters population centers. This is especially worrisome as worldwide travel is becoming more accessible to more and more people.

In 1978, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) targeted measles for elimination. In the year 2000 the goal was achieved of eliminating measles from the United States. Today, the measle epidemic has returned and is spreading far and wide and has re-established itself in communities where there is a cohort of children. False accusations against the pharmaceutical companies have new parents concerned of lifelong health issues that may result from the measle immunization. Also, inner-city areas where parents of small children don’t have health insurance or other means to vaccinate their children. Unvaccinated patients are more likely to receive health care in the public sector, have single mothers, and have parents who have no knowledge of existing vaccines. If measle immunization among preschool children in the United States are to be increased, education of both health care providers and parents, coupled with innovative strategies targeted to preschool children, particularly of low socioeconomic groups in inner cities, are needed.

A disease that had a preventable cure in the United States, which limited it from spreading has fostered its way back into society. A virus that can be easily eradicated with a well-coordinated approach from health agencies around the world. Cases of Measles have been on a steep rise within the United States this year with over 1000 individual cases reported so far in 2019. It's the most cases reported in this country since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. If we were to vaccinate absolutely everyone for whom the vaccine is recommended (children age 1 and then before they start elementary school), and we did this the world over, measles would join smallpox as a virus that is wiped off the face of the planet.