Measles cases have soared to a 20-year high in the US, with 288 cases reported since the beginning of the year — the most in a five-month period since 1994. Though measles was declared to be eliminated from the US in 2000, importation of the disease has continued, and in all cases this year where the source of infection could be determined, it was seen as stemming from international travel.
MOST PATIENTS WEREN'T VACCINATED FOR RELIGIOUS, PHILOSOPHICAL, OR PERSONAL OBJECTIONSThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pins the striking rise in measles cases on unvaccinated people, who make up at least 69 percent of the reported cases. (In 20 percent of cases, the person's vaccination status was unknown. In only 10 percent of cases was the person actually known to be vaccinated.) Some of the unvaccinated people were too young to receive vaccination or said that they had missed opportunities to be vaccinated. But the vast majority, 85 percent, had refrained from vaccination because of religious, philosophical, or personal objections.
"The current increase in measles cases is being driven by unvaccinated people, primarily US residents, who got measles in other countries, brought the virus back to the United States and spread to others in communities where many people are not vaccinated," assistant surgeon general Anne Schuchat says in a statement.
http://www.theverge....year-high-in-us
People really need to get their kids vaccinated.
