For 26 years, a traveler could bring measles into the United States and start an outbreak, but each chain of infections came to an end within a year. That was what it meant to say the U.S. had eliminated measles. This year, one chain of infections lasted at least 12 months. and report that the Pan American Health Organization has concluded the U.S. lost its elimination status. As of November 14, the organization was expected to announce its findings on November 17.
Before there was a vaccine, nearly every American child caught measles by age 15. In a typical year, an estimated 3 to 4 million people were infected, and 400 to 500 died. One of the children who caught measles in 1954 was a 13-year-old named David Edmonston. Researchers in Boston isolated the virus from his blood and used it to develop. As vaccination spread,.
That early progress made it possible to imagine stopping measles altogether. In 1966, federal health officials In 1978,. It took until 2000. Along the way, outbreaks taught us where children were slipping through the cracks. A second dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine gave children who hadn’t developed protection after the first dose another chance. The helped families get their children vaccinated when cost stood in the way.
As childhood vaccination rates fell, measles found more places where it could keep spreading. The U.S. recorded. In Utah,. That was the turning point. Even in a year with thousands of cases, the U.S. could have kept its elimination status if each chain of infections had ended in time.
Here in Pennsylvania, during this year’s outbreak. A newborn is too young for a measles shot. For the first months of life, babies depend on the immunity of the people around them. When enough people in a community are vaccinated, an outbreak can end before it ever reaches the nursery.