MedPage Today In part 1 of this Instagram Live discussion, MedPage Today editor-in-chief Jeremy Faust, MD, Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, and Katrine Wallace, PhD, talk about the recent rise in measles cases in the U.S.
Faust: Let’s start with measles because the title says “Measles, H5N1, and COVID, Oh My!“
In the 1950s and ’60s, we would routinely have 500,000 cases of measles per year in the United States. That was one of these [viruses] where [rates were] high and then the vaccine came and it plummeted down to like tens of thousands of cases. And then when they added the second dose in the late 80s or early ’90, I believe it went from having thousands of cases a year to just a few. We’re talking to the point hundreds, maybe thousands, and then really zero for a while.
Now we’re back where we saw before the pandemic with a couple hundred cases a year, a couple years we had in the thousands. Now it’s sort of creeping back; we’re having outbreaks. We thought we may be able to eradicate this thing, but we can’t. That’s where we’re at.
Let me start with Dr. Wallace. People come to you and ask you questions; you’re a science communicator and expert. What’s the big thing that people ask you about this?
Wallace: So there’s a few things going on, right? We’ve seen data showing that vaccination rates across the board globally have dropped. We know that measles is, we call it ‘the canary in the coal mine’ because it’s so contagious that it’s sort of a preceptor for other vaccine-preventable illnesses coming back and now we’re seeing that.
The question I mostly get now is, do we need another dose of measles vaccine? People are nervous that they themselves are going to get measles. So that’s mostly been the question that I’m getting, just around whether people need another vaccine as adults.