More travel, less vaccinations contribute to rise in Measels cases

(KWNO)-Measels outbreaks in U.S. are raising awareness about a disease most of us have heard of but probably don’t know a lot about. Measels primarily affects children and is highly contagious. It starts with virus like symptoms and progresses to fever and rash. Brian Simmons, an Infection Preventionist with Gunderson Lutheran says an increase in international travel and a decrease in vaccinations are the two main factors are contributing to the rise of Measels cases.

“Since about the mid-90s and 2000s, Measels was mostly considered eliminated from the U.S. meaning it was a virus we would never see pop up unless it was due to international travel. Over the last few years due to pandemic influences we have seen a decrease in our vaccination rates for MMR and generally we’d like to see us get to a national target of 95% vaccination rate for the first dose and most of the counties in our area are not meeting that goal,” says Simmons.

Simmons says the MMR vaccine, which also protects against mumps and rubella, is more than 99 percent effective in preventing Measels for people who both doses of the vaccine.