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Article Summary
This CDC report reviews 131 cases of measles occurring in January-July 2008.
The following points should be noted:
- This is the highest year-to-date number of measles cases in the United
States since 1996.
- Of the 131 cases, 91% were persons who were unvaccinated or who had an
unknown vaccination status.
- 123 were US residents, including 80% under age 20;
112 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status;
95 of these 112 (85%) were eligible for vaccination, and
63 of these 95 (66%)
were unvaccinated because of philosophical or religious beliefs.
- During this time, 2 outbreaks were reported.
The first outbreak, in
Washington State, included 7 children in 1 household and 19 additional cases
linked epidemiologically.
The possible source of the outbreak was a church conference.
The second outbreak was in Illinois and involved 4 unvaccinated
girls followed by 26 additional measles cases that were epidemiologically
linked to these 4, making a total of 30 cases. Of these,
29 of the children
were home-schooled, not subject to school-entry vaccination requirements,
and had parents who rejected vaccinations.
Viewpoint
The authors note that the United States had an average of 450 reported
deaths from measles and 4000 cases of measles encephalitis annually before
the availability of measles vaccine in the mid-1960s. Public health experts
claim that sustaining the elimination of measles requires that more than 90%
of children in preschool and 95% of school-age children be vaccinated. The
measles vaccine coverage in the United States is adequate to sustain this
goal; a problem surfaces when susceptible children travel abroad and import
cases from Europe and other regions of the world. When these children return
to the United States, they transmit measles to other vulnerable,
unvaccinated children by passing the herd-immunity threshold. Those who are
susceptible also include children under age12 months, who are too young to
be vaccinated. The obvious recommendation is for parents to ensure childhood
vaccination according to current guidelines; adults without evidence of
measles immunity should receive a single dose of MMR vaccine, and travelers
should be up-to-date on measles vaccination.
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Full article:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/703520(registration required)
Religion ist Mord!
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