Measles outbreak in Disneyland

Failure to vaccinate has caused an outbreak of Measles in California and other western states.  As of the last week of January, 84 cases have been diagnosed, including many adults.  Only 12% of victims are known to have received any measles vaccine.  The original (“index”) case has not been identified, but it’s assumed that an infected overseas traveler infected several other visitors to Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

But this is far from the only outbreak in the US.  The CDC reports 644 cases of measles in twenty three US states, during 2014 alone – a record number of cases.  Several Measles outbreaks were in the news last year, including one in Philadelphia.

And travelers from other countries continue (inadvertently) to bring measles to the US.  There is an outbreak in the Phillipines currently, with over 50,000 cases of measles there.  An outbreak in the US a couple of years ago stemmed from travelers from France.  (You can read more at this CDC website:  http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html)

When Ebola virus was causing much fear last year in Africa, many people were panicked about how to prevent it spreading in the US.  In fact, Ebola killed 8,818 people in the world last year.  Now measles is not as deadly in the individual case, but it’s far more common, and even more contagious than Ebola; and it still kills over 100,000 people every year in the world. Shouldn’t we be just as attentive to measles as Ebola?

Obviously we’re not doing enough to protect our children.  Please vaccinate your kids against measles, and all the other childhood illnesses!

—  David Epstein MD