It's baaaa-aack

A few months ago I wrote about a recent spate of measles cases in North America. After years of low immunization rates, the same thing has been happening in the United Kingdom, to the point where measles is once again endemic after more than a decade of halted spread.

Fourteen years after the local transmission of measles was halted in the United Kingdom (UK), the disease has once again become endemic, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA), the public health body of England and Wales. In an update on measles cases in its weekly bulletin last week, the agency stated that, as a result of almost a decade of low mumps-measles-rubella (MMR) vaccination coverage across the UK, ‘the number of children susceptible to measles is now sufficient to support the continuous spread of measles’

Current vaccination rates in the UK are well below the 95% desired to maintain herd immunity. Of over 50 lab-confirmed measles cases in Scotland so far this year (there have been 461 in England and Wales), only 2 of them were imported from overseas.

Measles is no longer endemic to Canada and the USA, but remains endemic in many other countries. If the current anti-vaccination movement continues to flourish, how long will it be before it returns to our shores?

[via Respectful Insolence]

Measles

Measles seems to be popping up everywhere these days. In February, 3 children in San Diego were diagnosed with the virus, the first reported outbreak since 1991. This initial outbreak spread to another, followed by another 6 and a quarantine. In March, health authorities in Seattle warned travellers of possible exposure. This past week, a measles warning was made for guests at a wedding in Rockland County, NY and, in a separate case, Nassau County, NY. In Milwaukee, four cases have been recently identified, 3 of them in children under 2 years of age. Twelve other children have been quarantined. In Canada, health officials in Guelph have issued a measles warning after an individual who was diagnosed may have exposed others. And in Toronto, 5 cases have been confirmed in the past 4 weeks.

Measles is a highly contagious virus. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, conjuntivitis and a potentially itchy rash. Complications are common and include pneumonia, encephalitis and corneal scarring. In developed countries, the fatality rate is about 1:1000 in otherwise healthy people.

If only there was some sort of shot to prevent infection.