Читать книгу Global Issues 2021 Edition - Группа авторов - Страница 59

If declining vaccination rates continue to result in an uptick in the number of measles cases, the disease may no longer be considered eliminated in the United States.

The American Medical Association, the American Pediatric Association and the American College of Physicians support eliminating all religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions for the MMR as the first step to get measles under control.

Governors have declared states of emergency where outbreaks have occurred in Brooklyn and Rockland County, N.Y., as well as in Washington state. “There has been a 99 percent increase in vaccinations in various areas of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, compared to the same time last year,” says Fauci.

In addition, new cases appear to be declining, with 54 in June and July of 2019 compared to 177 in April and 166 in March of the same year, according to Fauci. And infectious disease experts say taking an anti-vaccine stance has become increasingly unpopular this year as the nation has grappled with the measles outbreak.

But health experts worry that unless vaccine avoidance rates are reduced, even worse things are on the horizon.

“Measles is the most contagious of all the vaccine-preventable diseases, so this is the canary in the coal mine,” says Blumberg, at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. “If we can’t get our hands on this, we will see outbreaks of rubella or mumps or meningitis. We may even see the return of something like diphtheria,” which was eradicated in the 1920s.