Measles cases have surged 300% this year, and the disease has killed more than 1,200 people on one island alone since October
- Measles cases are spreading quickly, both in the US and around the globe.
- The Centers for Disease Control says 555 people have gotten sick around the US so far this year, a huge rise over 2018.
- Likewise, the World Health Organization reports that measles cases rose by 300% globally in the first three months of 2019 compared to last year's measles case numbers.
- Measles is an extremely contagious virus. As one expert put it, if people aren't vaccinated when and where an outbreak occurs, "the measles will find them."
- Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
The measles - an exceedingly contagious virus that can prompt a high fever, rashes, bumps, brain swelling, and even death - is spreading among unvaccinated populations around the globe.
Unvaccinated people everywhere from Brooklyn, New York to northern Madagascar are discovering just how pervasive and contagious the virus can be in the absence of vaccinations.
The World Health Organization reports that global case counts are up 300% this year compared with this same time last year. In the US, the official 2019 case count as of Monday was 555 people, well above 2018's total of 372 cases for the entire year.
"Measles is a very contagious disease," Robert Amler, dean of New York Medical College and a former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told Business Insider. "Where there are susceptible populations - meaning people who are unvaccinated and who have not received natural immunity from an actual infection with the wild virus - where those populations are, the measles virus will find them."
The measles kills unvaccinated kids
The measles has hit children in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. The New York Times reported Monday that at least one preschool is closed, and more than 320 people have gotten sick. The outbreak follows another in the Pacific Northwest that started in January and has sickened at least 73 people, most of whom are unvaccinated kids under 10 years old.
The measles is also sickening and killing babies and kids in unvaccinated corners of Madagascar, where more than 117,075 people have contracted the virus since October. The measles outbreak is the nation's biggest ever, but it's not happening because people are hesitant to vaccinate their kids; rather, it's because they don't have good access to vaccines or can't afford them.
The WHO reports that at least 1,205 people in Madagascar have died from the measles in this outbreak so far.
"My child had been vaccinated and received the first injection, but he died because we didn't have the means to go and get him the second injection," Dada, a Malagasy fisherman, told Reuters through a translator. "I couldn't afford to take him to the public hospital, so I took him to a quack to get the injection."
The family's heartbreak extends further: Dada's sister, Pela Manty, also recently lost two of her children to the measles virus.
"We didn't expect the fact that they were not vaccinated would kill them," she said.
Other parents in Madagascar are lining up to get their kids vaccinated. One dose of the measles vaccine is about 93% effective at preventing the measles, while the full course of two doses protects people 97% of the time.
While no measles deaths have been reported yet in the US this year, Amler says access to good medical care shouldn't be the reason that anyone chooses to forgo their shots.
"Do you really want to put your child's life on the line, in the hopes that your child will be saved by medical care?" he asked. "That seems like a rather backward argument to say 'it's okay for my child to get measles because she is less likely to die.' I would like a 0% chance of dying from the measles, particularly since measles can be prevented."
Who should get a measles shot, and who should not
Most people born after 1956 should make sure they're up to date on their measles shots. People born before January 1, 1957 are considered naturally immune because they were almost certainly exposed to the virus in childhood, even if they don't remember it.
The MMR shot (the standard measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine) is normally administered to kids before they turn 7. An extra dose won't do any harm for people who already have some measles immunity, so if you can't confirm that you've gotten both doses of the measles vaccine, it is fine to get another.
But the measles vaccine is not for everyone.
Pregnant women, babies under 6 months old, and people with fragile immune systems like cancer and HIV patients should not get the vaccine. These people instead rely on others to get their shots, so that herd immunity makes it hard for measles to spread among a community. Remember: if just one person has the measles, 90% of the unprotected people around them will get it.
In the US today, Amler said, part of the reason that more people are skipping vaccines is because some younger caregivers aren't actively scared of near-eradicated contagious illnesses they've never seen before, like the measles. That was not the case one or two generations ago, when parents easily remembered the crippling effects of a virus like the measles.
"When wild measles was raging and there was no available control, everybody - just about everybody born - would eventually get the measles," Amler said. "The vast majority would survive, but it would leave a trail of deafness, of blindness, of chronic pneumonia, and in some cases - the brain swelling and the death."
Some of these rare and debilitating side effects stay with kids throughout their lives.
"I would be the last one to make my fellow citizens afraid," Amler added. "I don't think that's a very ethical thing to do. But the reality is that in the absence of vaccination, measles does and will return. And with inadequate vaccine coverage in a population, it places all of us at risk."
- Read more about vaccines:
- From autism risks to mercury poisoning, here are 10 lies anti-vaxxers are spreading about the measles vaccine
- A high-school senior who got vaccinated against his mother's wishes just testified before the Senate - and accused anti-vaxxers of weaponizing her love
- Another huge study of over 650,000 kids shows absolutely no link between vaccines and autism. Doctors say it's proof we're living in a 'fact-resistant' world.
- Bill Gates' warning to anti-vaxxers: People in rich countries will die because they aren't getting measles shots