Americans visiting Europe and other global destinations have been advised to ensure they are properly vaccinated before traveling. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued the recommendation following a report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which revealed 15 European countries had reported measles cases during 2017, with 35 deaths attributed to the highly contagious disease over the past year.
Countries with reported outbreaks were: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The report attributed these outbreaks to small areas of low immunization coverage, which allows the virus "to spread among those who choose not to vaccinate, do not have equitable access to vaccines or cannot be protected through vaccination due to underlying health conditions".
Gary Brunette, MD, MPH, chief of the CDC's travelers' health program, warned: "Most measles cases in the United States are the result of international travel… Travelers get infected while abroad and bring the disease home. This can cause outbreaks here in the United States."
About Measles:
Measles is a highly contagious virus, with approximately 9 out of 10 susceptible people who come into contact with an infected patient developing the condition. It is spread when infected individuals cough or sneeze, and it can live for up to two hours on surfaces or in the air.
An estimated three to four million people in the United States contracted measles each year before 1963 when the vaccination was released. However, CDC figures suggest the introduction of the vaccine has reduced instances of measles among Americans by up to 99 percent.
Symptoms of measles include: a rash, cough, runny nose, high fever, and red, watery eyes. Other possible complications include ear infections, diarrhea, lung infections, swelling of the brain, and potentially death.
Vaccination Information:
Measles can be prevented by the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination. Two doses of the vaccine are considered 97 percent effective, while just one dose is about 93 percent effective at preventing measles. The CDC recommends children have two doses; one between 12 and 15 months of age and the second when they are between four and six years old. Children between 12 months and 12 years may also get an MMRV vaccine, such as ProQuad, to prevent them from contracting varicella (chickenpox) as well as measles, mumps and rubella.
Many diseases are now preventable through vaccination, including pneumococcal disease, diptheria, tetanus, rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, and polio. Many vaccinations provide protection against a number of conditions, such as the DtaP vaccine (for example INFANRIX or Daptacel), which immunizes against diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough. Others such as the rotavirus vaccines (e.g. RotaTeq) provide specific protection against one infectious disease.
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