Chicago – February 20, 2024
The massive resurgence of measles around the world — attributed to pandemic-related declines in immunizations and rising rates of vaccine hesitancyamong parents — raises the risk of more serious complications and deaths, said Dr. James Cherry, a professor of pediatrics and an infectious disease expert at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
In the past two months, doctors in the U.S. have diagnosed dozens of measles cases related to unvaccinated travelers who arrived at international airports, then exposed others at hospitals and day care centers. State health departments have reported measles cases in California, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Ohio, Maryland and Minnesota. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning to health providers, warning them to be on alert for more cases.
“All it takes is one infected traveler to spark an outbreak,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It’s coming from people who are getting off airplanes.”
Measles is so contagious that even one case is considered an outbreak. Each measles patient infects an average of 12 to 18 people who lack immunity from vaccines or natural infection. In comparison, each Covid-19 patient infects about two other people, said Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“Measles is much, much more contagious than Covid or the flu,” Offit said.
Although two doses of the measles vaccine protect 97% of children, the airborne virus spreads so quickly that 95% of children in a community need to be vaccinated in order to stop outbreaks. About 93% of children were up to date on the measles vaccine in 2022-23, according to the CDC.
All states mandate vaccinations for children in public schools, but a growing number of families are taking advantage of exemptions for religious, philosophical or medical reasons. About 3% of students are now exempt from vaccine mandates. In 10 states, more than 5% of schoolchildren are exempt, a rate that makes it harder to contain outbreaks.
