In Texas, it took the death of a child to spur people to get vaccinated against … measles, a disease that was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.
As of this writing, there were 223 cases of the disease in Texas, with another 30 in New Mexico. The numbers will likely grow.
According to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), as of March 7, cases of measles were reported in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington – in addition to Texas.
The CDC noted the disease was eliminated in the United States two decades ago because of the high percentage of vaccinated people. Since 2000, the vaccination rate among kindergarten students has dropped below the optimum 95 per cent, is much lower in some communities and is decreasing. At the same time, measles activity worldwide is on the increase. And people are travelling.
We in Ontario should not be breathing a sigh of relief – we, too, are having measles outbreaks – three confirmed cases in Windsor-Essex, a case in London and a case in Chatham-Kent. Since one of the possible exposure sites was a Walmart Supercentre in Leamington, we can expect to see more cases.
This is in addition to outbreaks in Oxford and Elgin counties, which are said to have the highest number of measles cases in Canada, according to Public Health Ontario. One of the possible exposure sites there was the community centre in Aylmer, when a hockey tournament was taking place.
Those of a certain age might wonder why all the fuss. There was a time when every child got measles. Parents would send their kids to play in a household where people had measles, so they would “get it over with” on summer holidays. There were always a few stories about children who suffered severe complications from measles – blindness, encephalitis that potentially causes brain damage, severe diarrhea and related dehydration, ear infections and serious breathing problems including pneumonia, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Some of those complications resulted in deaths. When pregnant women caught measles, it could result in the baby being born prematurely, with a low birth weight.
The fact is, measles is a dangerous disease – it always was, even when it was considered a normal part of childhood.
First of all, it is extremely contagious. Forget a vaccination rate of what might be described as “most.” It takes a vaccination rate of “almost all” – 95 per cent or more – to protect a community.
Two doses of the safe measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMRV) are required for anyone born in or after 1970. Older people are probably immune, either from having had measles, or because they were vaccinated back when entire classrooms of kids were lined up in school hallways and given the vaccine.
WHO states that before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.
What is happening now, according to WHO, is a sort of perfect storm. We have the complacency that comes from never having known anyone who died from measles – thanks to mass immunization. Add the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, when regular immunizations were suspended. And we have Andrew Wakefield, described by Wikipedia as “a British fraudster, anti-vaccine activist and disgraced former physician.”
Wakefield published a fraudulent 1998 article in Lancet, falsely claiming that the MMR vaccine caused autism. The article was retracted when it came out that Wakefield stood to gain financially (from selling test kits), and
other researchers were unable to duplicate his test results. Wakefield was subsequently struck off the British medical register. He moved to the United States, became active in the anti-vaxx movement there, and, coincidentally, appeared with Donald Trump in inauguration photos.
Every now and then, Wakefield’s fake autism theory pops up on social media, and children die of measles as a result.
The bottom line is, measles is out there, and very contagious. The vaccine is safe and protects from this killer disease. No child should die from measles.
Contact your local public health unit for more information.
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Pauline Kerr is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Midwestern Newspapers. She can be reached at pkerr@midwesternnewspapers.com.
