Half of Measles Patients Unvaccinated, Most Willingly

Half of those who contracted measles over the past 15 years were unvaccinated, and in most of those cases the patient (or their legal guardian) refused the vaccination, reports a new study published online earlier this week by the “Journal of the American Medical Association.”

The research team, led by Dr. Saad B. Omer, reviewed published reports of measles outbreaks in the United States since 2000 — the year the disease was eliminated from the population — as well as all outbreaks of whooping cough (pertussis) since 1997, when that disease was at its lowest point. The goal was to evaluate the association between vaccination and the epidemiology of these diseases, both of which are preventable.

The authors analyzed a study of national measles data reported to the CDC from 1985 through 1992, which found “unvaccinated children who had a vaccine exemption were 35 times more likely to contract measles compared with vaccinated children. The epidemic curve of measles determined that the resurgence started a year earlier among children with exemptions compared with vaccinated children.”

see more at: http://news.discovery.com/human/health/half-of-measles-patients-unvaccinated-most-willingly-160318.htm