Why Is Measles on the Rise?

Last year was the worst year for measles cases in more than a decade, with at least 15 outbreaks in the U.S. Although the Centers for Disease Control declared the highly infectious, potentially fatal disease eliminated from this country in 2000, it continues to spread with the highest number of cases since 1996, according to a new report published on Medscape this month.

Here’s a look at the resurgence of this dangerous disease and how to protect yourself and your family.

Find out the truth about the MMR vaccine.

How widespread are the outbreaks? 

As of August 26, 2011, 198 cases were reported in the U.S., compared to a median of 56 cases a year between 2001 and 2008, according to the CDC. That means that in just eight months of 2011, there were nearly four times the number of cases that normally occur in an entire year. The CDC reports that 40 percent of patients needed to be hospitalized, with babies and kids under five the most severely affected.

In Europe, there are much larger, ongoing outbreaks in 36 countries, resulting in nearly 30,000 cases in 2011. Measles is now endemic in the UK, despite having been declared eliminated in 1995. In Africa, cases have swelled from 36,000 in 2009 to 172,824 in 2010.

Learn about the 10 worst outbreaks in U.S. history.

What’s behind the rise?

Blame it on a perfect storm of 3 factors, says the Medscape report by Kristen Feemster, MD, MPH:

Measles is highly contagious

In fact, nearly everyone who isn’t vaccinated will catch the disease if they’re exposed to an infected person. People with measles harbor the virus in the mucus of the nose and throat and spread it through airborne droplets when they sneeze, cough or talk.

Not only can other people inhale the spray and get sick, but the virus can contaminate surfaces and remains contagious for several hours. Long after an infected person leaves the room, you can catch the disease by touching an infected object and then rubbing your eyes, nose or mouth.

More parents are refusing to get their kids vaccinated

Because most parents have never seen a case of measles, they may not realize that if they don’t get their kids vaccinated, they’re gambling with their children’s lives. Globally, measles kills 164,000 people a year, most of them children.

Up to 20 percent of measles sufferers develop complications, ranging from ear infections to bronchitis, pneumonia, laryngitis, and encephalitis (brain inflammation that can lead to convulsions, coma or death). One in 20 measles patients gets pneumonia and up to 3 out of 1,000 die.

All an infected traveler has to do is hop on an airplane to the US to trigger the next outbreak

Medscape reports that 89 percent of the 2011 measles cases in the US were “imported” by infected travelers or immigrants, mainly from European countries.

Almost all infections occurred in unvaccinated kids, usually because their parents had refused vaccination. For example, Medscape reports that of 12 recent cases of measles in California, 75 percent were in kids who were intentionally unvaccinated, due to their parents having “safety concerns.”

How effective is the measles vaccine?

The CDC recommends vaccinating kids with the first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at 12 to 15 months of age, followed by a second dose at ages 4 to 6. The vaccine is more than 95 percent effective—and saves lives.

Before it was available, 3 to 4 million Americans came down with measles annually, of whom 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized and 1,000 were chronically disabled from encephalitis.

Does the MMR vaccine cause autism?

This thoroughly discredited belief stems from a now-retracted British study published in Lancet in 1998 claiming that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine might trigger autism. 

Most of the study’s coauthors withdrew their names after learning that the lead author, Andrew Wakefield, “had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose,” according to CNN, which also reported last year that British Medical Journal has declared the study “an elaborate fraud” that has done long-lasting harm to public health.

Wakefield, who has been stripped of his medical license, contends that his work has been “grossly distorted,” according to CNN. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, CDC and Institute of Medicine,conducted a comprehensive safety review and found no evidence of any link between the MMR shot and autism.

What’s the impact of this myth?

Rates of vaccination plummeted in Europe after the Wakefield study was published—in the same countries that are now experiencing the worst measles outbreaks.

Now travelers from those countries are bringing the disease to the US, where babies too young to be vaccinated, and kids whose parents have refused the shot, are at particular risk for the potentially fatal disease, which has no approved anti-viral treatment.

Is the MMR shot safe?

Medscape reports the risk of serious complications is only about one out a million. Five to fifteen percent of kids will develop a fever for a few days after the shot, and less than five percent will break out in a rash.

Conversely, if immunization rates continue to drop due to unfounded fears, we’ll see more measles outbreaks—and more kids hospitalized with complications, or even lives lost to a preventable disease. 

Read about how Europe and the U.S. are battling measles outbreaks.

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