The United States is in the middle of the second-largest measles outbreak since the disease was considered eliminated around 2000. Areas like New York City and Washington state have declared states of emergency over the very infectious disease’s penetration of their communities. Meanwhile, the anti-vaxxer movement, the main driver of an uptick in the number of measles cases in the U.S. over the past two decades, continue to throw “measles parties,” events at which children are put together deliberately to catch the illness. Meanwhile, in Madagascar, a country with, due to poverty, a 58 percent vaccination rate against measles, is dealing with the largest outbreak in its history.
According to the Associated Press, there are well over 115,000 cases of measles in the island country, and over 1,200 deaths. Once again, this is because the country lacks the resources to bring its vaccination rates above 90 percent. The outbreak has been compounded by malnutrition in 50 percent of the child population of Madagascar. The World Health Organization has begun a third campaign to vaccinate children in the country this year.
The thinking that measles is some benign childhood illness that we as a nation have become too soft to endure is idiotic and dangerous. The more people opt out of their responsibilities to our collective health as a society, the more danger we are all in. It is not simply your child that is at risk. It is every child, every adult, and every senior who cannot be immunized for real medical reasons.
