Measles vs. Ebola: The Public’s Perception
One of the major pieces of U.S. public health news in 2015 was the nine confirmed cases of measles at Disneyland in California. In the first sixteen weeks of 2017 alone, the preliminary count for reported measles cases was 61. Measles, a highly contagious and potentially deadly but vaccine-preventable disease, was eliminated in the United States in 2000. The disease — a respiratory infection that is easily spread through the air — is now making the rounds again due to declining vaccination rates in the country.
Without focused education campaigns, the American public will likely continue to be apathetic towards domestic diseases and show prejudice towards foreign ones.
2015 also marked the height of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Ebola is a rare disease that can only spread through direct contact with bodily fluids or blood of a person who is already showing symptoms of the disease. The Ebola outbreak was largely met with hysteria in the United States, which resulted in the quarantine of health workers returning from Ebola-stricken countries, general widespread fear of all those who traveled to anywhere on the vast continent of Africa, and other irrational behaviors.
Americans were more afraid of a rare, foreign disease than a deadly disease that was starting to show up again in their own country.
Given the differences in proximity of the disease epicenters and the transmission mechanisms for measles and Ebola, one would expect that Americans would be more afraid of contracting measles than Ebola. That, however, was not the case. Americans were more afraid of a rare, foreign disease than a deadly disease that was starting to show up again in their own country. This sentiment is likely to show up again in light of the World Health Organization’s recent declaration of an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Without focused education campaigns, the American public will likely continue to be apathetic towards domestic diseases and show prejudice towards foreign ones. U.S. health departments and health professionals need to continuously highlight the advantages of immunizing against preventable diseases. This is especially important given that the current U.S. president has previously expressed opposition to vaccines.
In this age of increased globalization, it is critical to keep diseases contained and to eliminate them as soon as possible to protect the wellbeing of individuals all around the world.
Two doses of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine are roughly 97 percent effective at preventing measles, but some parents are refusing to immunize their children in light of unsupported claims that vaccines cause autism. Anti-vaccine activists or anti-vaxxers, individuals who use fraudulent, discredited studies and fear-mongering tactics to protest effective and safe vaccinations, are reviving diseases that have been laid to rest by years of public health efforts.
Groups such as infants and immunocompromised individuals who are not healthy enough to receive vaccinations rely on herd immunity to avoid certain diseases. When an eligible individual willingly refuses a vaccine, he or she is risking the lives of fellow human beings who cannot medically be immunized.
Vaccinations need to be taken seriously before major progress in global public health is reversed. In this age of increased globalization, it is critical to keep diseases contained and to eliminate them as soon as possible to protect the well being of individuals all around the world. The United States must take action to ensure measles is once again eradicated— this time, for good.
Teena Cherian is a 2016–2017 Global Health Corps fellow at Health Development Initiative in Rwanda.
