| Page 2 of 2 < |
Groups Make Headway in Fight Against Measles
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Mass vaccination campaigns, done every two to four years, will remain important, although ultimately, routine measles vaccination everywhere is the goal, Salama said.
If the new target is reached, measles could be a realistic target for eradication.
Smallpox was eradicated in 1978. Guinea worm disease, a parasitic infection, is on the verge of eradication. A campaign to wipe out polio, launched in 1988, is struggling to reach its goal seven years after its original deadline. However, at yesterday's briefing, Margaret Chan, who took office as WHO's director general this month, was noncommittal about taking on such a difficult goal with measles.
"I think at this stage it is too early to talk about eradication," she said.
Although virtually absent from United States in the last generation, measles was once a feared disease of childhood. Before vaccination became routine in 1963, this country had 3 million to 4 million cases, and several thousand deaths, each year.
The fatality rate in healthy children is 1 to 3 percent, but it can be as high as 30 percent among those who are malnourished, especially those who get too little Vitamin A. Measles further suppresses their immunity, and many die of diarrhea or pneumonia.
Measles, which is spread by respiratory droplets, is one of the most contagious diseases known, often passing through a susceptible population in a wave of fever and rash. Only when 95 percent of a population becomes immune does the chain of transmission break and the virus disappears.
Measles almost certainly arose when people began to have close, nearly constant contact with domesticated animals. It is closely related to rinderpest, a viral infection of cattle, and to canine distemper virus, which infects dogs.
