In 2017, Canada and the United States saw the resurgence of a disease that has plagued humans since the seventh century but should have been entirely eradicated with the invention of vaccines. This disease is none other than measles, a viral infection that can be transmitted through the air. In the last two years, countries all over the world, from the Americas to Europe, have experienced measles outbreaks.
The most effective mode of prevention against this infection is a measles containing vaccine. In Canada, this vaccine is available for free. However, in countries where the vaccine is not as readily available, measles is incredibly common, especially amongst children. Before the vaccine was introduced in North America, infection was widely considered to be entirely unavoidable. Yet, with the introduction of the vaccine, the number of measles cases decreased rapidly, with a drop of 84 per cent in measles deaths worldwide between 2000 and 2016.
One would think that this genius invention would be enough to stop the disease in its tracks, but decades after the vaccine’s introduction, measles are on the rise again. The issue is that some children are not being vaccinated, making themselves susceptible to the disease, and infecting others along the way. Only around 90 per cent of Canadians are vaccinated against measles, which has proven to not be a large enough proportion of the population to keep the disease at bay.
A survey conducted by Statistics Canada in 2015 found that 89% of Canadian parents trust vaccines and maintain their children’s vaccine records up to date. However, some people believe that diseases such as measles and pertussis are no longer prevalent and pose no risk to their children. Others fear vaccines and question their safety and legitimacy. Unfortunately, a few unvaccinated children can pose a great threat to the health of their communities overall.
The causes of these various outbreaks are all fairly similar: a combination of travel and unvaccinated individuals. Large outbreaks in North America almost always start with an unvaccinated individual travelling to another country where a large portion of the population is unvaccinated. Upon returning home, the traveller is bound to infect more unvaccinated individuals, leading to disease spread.
In 2014, a measles outbreak was reported at Disneyland in California, affecting over 100 people. This outbreak came as a shock, and medical officials could only hypothesize how it came to be. They came up with an explanation similar to the one that has been given to more recent outbreaks: someone traveled overseas, got infected, returned home, and passed it on.
One of the most fascinating and – albeit- threatening measles outbreaks occurred recently among the members of a remote Amazonian tribe, the Yanomami. Their lack of access to medical care placed them at serious risk of extreme devastation because of the outbreak. Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, an organization that focuses on isolated indigenous groups, stated that , “These tribes are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet. Urgent medical care is the only thing standing between these communities and utter devastation.”
To date, the American Red Cross, United Nations Foundation , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , United Nations Children’s Fund , World Health Organization (WHO), and the Pan American Health Organization are all employing different programs and strategies to face this new wave of measles outbreaks. Together, these organizations have started the Measles Initiative, which will provide African countries with mass vaccination programs. WHO is also promoting vaccination programs in Brazil, a country that saw almost one thousand measles cases in the first five months of 2018. In North America, measles cases are much rarer, and outbreaks are incredibly sporadic. The disease is considered eliminated in Canada and the United States, but outbreaks will continue to occur so long as people from these countries travel overseas and are exposed to the virus.
The best we can do to protect the world against a potential measles epidemic is by simply making the vaccine as accessible to as many people as possible and encouraging all parents to vaccinate their children. Time and time again, the invention of the vaccine has proven to be a lifesaver, and the measles vaccine is no different from the rest- it’s a source of protection that the world urgently needed- and continues to need in the here and now.