Paging Dr. Frischer: Measles

Recent outbreaks of measles in the United States are raising alarm among public health experts. In 2024, 285 cases were reported in 31 states. More than 80% of those cases were among those who were unvaccinated (or whose vaccination status was unknown). Why is this happening?

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease. It can cause serious health consequences and death, particularly among those who are young and unvaccinated. Typical symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes, and a rash of red spots. About one in five unvaccinated people in this country who get measles will be hospitalized. About one in 20 children will develop pneumonia, and others may develop encephalitis (swelling in the brain).

Please understand that measles is preventable, due to a highly effective and safe vaccine. Experts recommend that children get the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in two doses; the first between 12 and 15 months, and a second between four and six years old. One dose is about 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective. These are fantastic numbers for any vaccine.

Measles has lately become a concern due to falling vaccination rates. Travel can result in unvaccinated people being exposed to the disease both abroad and at home. Are you aware that measles was actually eliminated from the United States in 2000, prior to the Pandemic? Because it is so contagious, a high level of vaccination coverage is critical to continue to minimize its spread. Experts have set a target vaccination rate at 95%, but measles vaccination coverage has dropped to 90.8% among children, putting 280,000 children at risk.

To be clear, the danger of measles is not simply about exposure. That could happen anywhere - whether traveling out of the country, or from someone locally who has been exposed and got sick. The issue is herd immunity. We need enough people to be vaccinated at home, in order to keep the disease in check. This brings to mind another terrible disease, polio, which showed up in New York in 2022. The infected person was (no surprise) unvaccinated. Both of these diseases had been completely eradicated in the United States, due to safe and highly effective vaccines.

Please note: Prior to the Pandemic, when measles was completely eradicated, this country had many international travelers, both legal and illegal, entering and leaving this country. All of those exposures resulted in ZERO measles cases. Measles remained eradicated here due to our high vaccination rate. Please do your part to keep our country safe from these highly preventable diseases.