The alarm has been sounded by health experts as measles cases surge in the U.S., with states like Tennessee and Georgia at the forefront of the disturbing trend; the CDC has flagged this upswing in infections as a significant cause for concern, highlighting the urgent need for increased vaccination coverage to stem the tide. According to FOX 17, the measles vaccination rate for Tennessee children in 2023 dipped to a lackluster 90%, falling well below the 95% threshold that health officials like Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, the Chief of Hospital Medicine at Children's Hospital at Erlanger, consider crucial for maintaining herd immunity and preventing outbreaks.
Tennessee and Georgia are experiencing a concerning upswing in measles, a highly contagious disease that the U.S. thought was under control, and when it comes to safeguarding the public health vaccination remains the bulwark against this preventable illness, according to FOX 17.
In Georgia, a concerning decline in MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccinations since the COVID-19 pandemic has preceded a resurgence of measles; a disease that had previously been eliminated in the U.S. but is now finding footholds where vaccination rates have slipped. "Measles is dangerous, killing two in a thousand people and hospitalizing 1 in 20 patients for respiratory or neurologic difficulty. It is a big deal. You do not see that high of a rate in diseases such as the flu," Michael Bossak, Director of the Pediatrics Hospital of Medicine at Memorial, told FOX 28 Savannah. In the state, two confirmed measles cases have been reported, all of which occurred in unvaccinated individuals— a clear signal that vaccine-preventable diseases remain a threat when communities let their guard down.
While the numbers of infected may seem small, the potential for measles to spread rapidly is exemplified by its R0 - or basic reproduction number – which indicates how contagious an infectious disease is, measles sits at the top with an R0 ranging from 12 to 18, COVID-19 has a varying R0 depending on the variant but during its Delta surge, it was estimated to be between 5 and 8, which shows that measles can spread exceptionally quickly and without robust vaccination efforts it can make significant inroads into populations leading to a larger public health crisis than we are seeing now, and which could have profound impacts on our healthcare systems and communities, especially the most vulnerable among us.
