Misinformation Fuels Measles Comeback
No, it’s not a benign illness that you can safely ignore
After decades of progress, measles cases and deaths are once again on the rise across the globe, according to a report from the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control.
Between 2021 and 2022, following a dip in vaccination rates due to the COVID pandemic, measles cases rose by 18% globally, resulting in tens of thousands of additional deaths.
But that’s ok because measles is a benign childhood illness, right?
Right. Except, of course, in those cases where it leads to hospitalization (20% of the time), permanent neurological damage (0.1% of cases, or 1 out every 1,000 cases), or death (0.1–0.3%, or between 1 and 3 out of every thousand cases).
“The increase in [global] measles outbreaks and deaths is staggering, but unfortunately, not unexpected given the declining vaccination rates we’ve seen in the past few years,” John Vertefeuille, director of CDC’s Global Immunization Division, said in a statement.
Driving these distressing global trends in vaccination is a combination of poverty, public health systems strained by the COVID-19 pandemic, and persistent misinformation about the hazards of measles and the safety of measles vaccines.
