It would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago for medical facilities such as those in Union Medical Group in Terre Haute and Vermillion County to alert the public that they would begin screening their patients for measles.
Yet that is what occurred recently when UMG announced a measles screening program at its facilities because of the resurgence of the disease throughout the United States.
No less than 25 years ago, measles — a highly contagious airborne virus that can infect people of any age and put them at risk for even more serious illness — had been declared eliminated in the U.S. The country had achieved that status because of the widely embraced immunization efforts of recent decades.
BUT IN THE past 10 years, the virus has made an astonishing comeback, largely because of decreased immunization and the rise of vaccine skepticism in some segments of society.
Incidents of measles infections began increasing in southwestern states last year but quickly spread. As of this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 1,000 cases have been confirmed and many more are suspected across the country. As many as 40 states have reported cases as of this week.
Indiana, Illinois and surrounding states are among those. Initially, confirmed cases were reported in Allen County in the northeastern section of the state, where Fort Wayne is the county seat. Soon after, Putnam County between Terre Haute and Indianapolis had a confirmed case. One by one, other counties such as Hamilton and Steuben were seeing suspected cases.
Measles is still a required vaccine for attending schools. But compliance has begun to slip, and that opens the door for more widespread cases to reappear.
IMMUNIZATIONS and public health programs built around them have been a highly effective tool for reducing once dangerous outbreaks of measles and other diseases. Hopefully, this resurgence of measles will spark a new wave of vaccine compliance.
There will be obstacles, of course, including the rise of vaccine hesitancy and resistance in institutions such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is President Trump’s appointed secretary.
Kennedy hasn’t withdrawn support for the measles vaccine, but his leadership through the resurgence has been weak and confusing. He has made a number of unsupported claims about the virus, and has pushed federal agencies to more closely examine treatments and preventions that medical professionals widely debunk.
IT’S A perilous situation and the medical community must continue to push back.
The public must also stay vigilant and maintain its support for and participation in public health programs that emphasize various vaccines such as the one that prevents measles. While unfounded conspiracies surrounding immunization will always be around, people must embrace common sense and ignore claims that have no basis in science or medicine.
Vaccines are a miracle of modern medicine and have led to a healthier society over the past 70-plus years. That’s a fact that can’t be disputed and should be roundly embraced.
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