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- An American schoolboy was vaccinated against measles in 1962 at the Fernbank School in Atlanta, Georgia.
- source
- Image courtesy of CDC / Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images
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Nearly 700 cases of measles have been reported
reported in the United States this year, with most of the cases in New York and
Washington states. This is the largest number of cases in the United States in 25
years. -
The measles vaccine was
developed in the early 1960s and measles was declared
eliminated from the United States in 2000. -
When there are enough people vaccinated in a
population, the measles virus has no chance of spreading.
But Experts worry that more children are giving up
vaccines, the virus could become established once in the country
again. -
Visit the Business Insider Home Page for
more stories.
Measles is back. The extremely
the contagious virus is circulating again in the United States,
especially in the pockets of the country where unvaccinated people
are grouped together and at risk.
With nearly 700 cases reported so far
this year – the highest total in 25 years – US centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that
"the longer these epidemics last, the longer the
chance, measles will again be implanted in the United States steadily
States. "
Before the invention of the measles vaccine in the early 1960s,
measles killed 400 to 500
people in the United States every year. Public health experts are now
fears that the disease will become deadly again (although
No deaths in the United States have been reported so far this year).
This is what measles looks like when
people are not vaccinated.
The measles virus is extremely contagious: 90% of unprotected and exposed people will be infected.
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- This 1963 photo shows what a measles rash on the third day looks like.
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- CDC
The measles virus can live for two hours on surfaces outside the
body, infecting other people long after the departure of a sick
bedroom. Then it takes about seven to 14 days for the first
symptoms to appear.
Some of the first indications that a person has measles a lot
like the flu: infected people may have a cough, a mild fever,
runny nose and sore throat.
The eyes of a child often begin to turn red and watery. After three days of illness, a rash begins to appear on the face and neck, then spreads to the body.
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- A young child presents the characteristic rash of measles in 1999.
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- CDC / Barbara Rice
"Measles is not a harmless childhood disease, but a highly
contagious, life-threatening disease ", US Health and
Social Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement
Wednesday.
People with measles can be sensitive to light and about one in 1,000 people who contract the disease will die.
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- A child with measles rash.
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- CDC
Dr. Robert Amler, Dean of the New York Medical College,
recently declared Business Insider
that the question he wants to ask anti-vaxxers is: "you really
want to put your child's life in danger, in the hope that your
will the child be saved by medical care? "
Most children survive on measles, but this can make them weak and vulnerable to infection. Complications can include brain damage, blindness, deafness and chronic pneumonia.
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- This late 1960s photograph depicts a Nigerian mother and her child recovering from measles. Such cases of skin peeling in patients in recovery phase are often prominent and resemble those of burns.
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- CDC / Dr. Lyle Conrad
Fortunately, when there are enough people vaccinated against measles
within a population, it is almost impossible to catch the virus.
"I would like 0% chance to die from measles,
Especially as measles can be prevented, "said Amler.
Before the measles vaccine was developed, every year 3 to 4 million people in the United States had measles.
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- A 1960s lab technician searching for a German measles vaccine at the New York University Medical Center.
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- Henry Groskinsky / LIFE Images Collection / Getty Images
sources: Internal business,
CDC
Then, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, bacteriologist John Enders developed the first measles vaccine.
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- Professor John Franklin Enders shared the Nobel Prize in 1954 for his research on polio and developed a vaccine against measles in 1962.
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- Keystone / Getty Images
In 1963, people in the United States
started receiving their first doses of measles vaccines.
This step was taken just a few years after the invention of the first polio vaccine by Jonas Salk in 1955. Elvis quickly queued to take his dose.
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- American singer and musician Elvis Presley looks from the corner of the eye at a smiling nurse while a doctor injects him with a polio vaccine behind the scenes at "The Ed Sullivan Show" in New York on October 28, 1956.
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- CBS / Getty Images Photo Archive
The vaccines are not perfect. The measles vaccine is 97% effective in preventing cases.
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- A three-year-old boy shows his dissatisfaction after receiving a double shot in Fairfax, Va., On August 5, 1962.
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- Underwood Archives / Getty Images
Source: CDC
This is why public health experts emphasize the importance of "herd immunity".
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- The entire population of Costa Rica has been vaccinated against smallpox, measles and polio during a campaign by government and US volunteers.
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- Lynn Pelham / LIFE Images Collection / Getty Images
If enough people in a community are vaccinated, viruses like
measles has very little chance of spreading even though a case is
introduced.
Recently, people have reported cases of measles in the United States after traveling abroad to places like Israel, France, and Italy where outbreaks occur. New York City has had at least 330 measles cases this year.
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- Poster published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advocating vaccination against measles in 1985.
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- Courtesy National Library of Medicine / Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images
The problem is particularly pronounced among orthodox Jews
pockets of the city, where some parents were involuntary
targets for anti-vaccination campaigns.
"We can not allow this dangerous disease to come back
At New York. We must stop now, "New York Mayor Bill de
Said Blasio.
Earlier this month, health in New York
Commissioner ordered that any unvaccinated person living in
the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, where a measles epidemic is
rage, must receive measles vaccine or show proof of immunity.
If this is not the case, the people of Williamsburg are now at risk of
a fine of $ 1,000.
Vaccines can prevent many other life-threatening diseases other than measles. The CDC points out that "more than 15,000 Americans died of diphtheria in 1921, before the adoption of a vaccine."
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- Mobile vaccination vans from the UK National Health Service have helped reduce the risk of diphtheria.
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- Popperfoto / Getty Images
Source: CDC
"It's amazing how, in the richest countries, the consensus that children should be protected has been lost," Bill Gates told Reddit in February. "Unfortunately, this will result in deaths from measles or whooping cough."
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- A poster produced for the Health Education Council in the United Kingdom in the 1980s to encourage parents to vaccinate their children against measles.
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- SSPL / Getty Images
The last fatal case of measles in the United States
was registered in 2015.
"The best solution to an infectious disease problem is a vaccine," said Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins Health Security Center to Business Insider. "The only disease ever eradicated from the planet? It's smallpox and it's because of a vaccine."
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- An Indonesian health worker vaccinates an Indonesian child against measles on February 27, 2007 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia launched a campaign against measles that killed an Indonesian child every 20 minutes, or 30,000 a year.
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- Dimas Ardian / Getty Images
Adalja said the work of scientists inventing vaccines is far from being
finished.
"We need more vaccines because there are so many diseases
are still circulating and for which we do not have vaccines, "he added.
I said. "We have no vaccine against hepatitis C, HIV, he
are all these emerging infectious diseases coming out, all
these bacterial diseases like staph and C. diff – we have not
vaccines against them. "
He added that the true value of vaccines is often "lost" once
we get used to them because people just forget how much the past
diseases and infections were.
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