Measles On The Rise Because People are Not Immunized
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
Measles is again on the rise - 127 people in 15 states have been confirmed to have measles. And, all of them were unimmunized against measles. Foreign travel was the initiator of the outbreak - people acquired the measles in other countries and brought it back into the US, according to Reuters UK. This is the biggest measles outbreak reported since 1997.
According to the CDC, the following States are involved: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington state, as well as Washington, D.C.
And, the CDC reported that travel to the following countries have been implicated in the spread of measles so far: Switzerland, Israel, Belgium, Italy, India, Germany, China, Pakistan, Russia and the Philippines.
This measles outbreaks highlights the need for people to be immunized properly against vaccine-preventable illnesses. It highlights that travel between countries is a risk factor and that the only way to keep our global societies and our children protected is to be sure each and every individual is protected against vaccine-preventable illnesses such as measles. We have to remember that these diseases used to wipe out people on epidemic proportions and that multiple studies have demonstrated the vaccines to be safe and to not be linked to autism.
As noted by Reuters UK, in countries that still don’t have immunization programs, measles kills 250,000 people globally. That number will go higher if we back off on wide-spread vaccine programs. Measles, like other vaccine-preventable illnesses, has no cure - but does have a path to prevention via vaccination.
BTW, the CDC did issue a warning about this outbreak being on the horizon. In fact, in that warning, the head of the CDC’s immunization program did note that traveling to Europe was a risk factor for contracting measles. The surprise to many of us was that it only took two months for their prophetic works to become reality.
How is it our society can become so advanced in every way but for the ability to reason and really act for the global good? We may be advanced on paper, but we are truly falling behind in the ways that matter for the health and well being of our children’s futures. It’s time we stopped questioning and worrying about every little thing and started to proactively work on keeping our society healthy again. Our current path will be our own undoing.
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