From Chicago Tribune, New York Times editorial, and New York Times

Federal officials report measles cases in the U.S. have reached their highest levels in more than a decade, and public health officials are blaming parents who choose not to vaccinate their children because of autism fears. Measles outbreaks have also soared in Britain, Switzerland, Israel, Austria, and Italy, sickening thousands and causing at least two deaths.

From January through July, 131 measles cases were reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 15 states and the District of Columbia, and 15 people were hospitalized. Of those old enough to be eligible for vaccines, two-thirds had not been vaccinated. Autism and anti-vaccines advocates are unapologetic about the return of measles.

Physicians say they must increasingly spend time counseling parents who believe vaccines cause autism. Multiple studies have refuted the connection between vaccines and autism.

Measles is the first disease to reappear when vaccination rates decline because it is highly contagious. In the decade before the measles vaccination program began, each year nearly 4 million people in the United States were infected, 48,000 were hospitalized, 1,000 were chronically disabled and nearly 500 died.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 8:50 am and is filed under autism, medicine, public attitudes, public health, vaccine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.