Measles as Metaphor —What Resurgence Means for the Future of Immunization

With the call for a vaccine to prevent the spread of the newly identified coronavirus (COVID-19), we should not lose sight of a virus we know, for which there has been a vaccine in use for more than 50 years: measles. Measles, one of the most contagious infectious diseases, is the canary in the immunization coal mine. Previously a near rite of passage, annually infecting 3 million to 4 million US children and causing 400 to 500 deaths, measles steadily declined after the 1968 introduction of a safe, highly effective vaccine to the point of declared national elimination (in 2000).
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research