Measles Outbreak

It's not a disease you hear much about these days, but the U.S. is on track to have the most measles cases in the last decade.

Most of the new cases doctors are seeing here in the U.S. are linked to other countries, especially Europe. Health experts are blaming this increase on a failure to vaccinate children. Some of the cases are from adults visiting the U.S., other cases are children who live here but visited a foreign country recently and returned infected with the measles.

In a typical year, this country only sees around 50 cases. So far this year we've seen 89 and are on track to have more cases than we did back in 2008 when 140 people got infected. Measles is a very contagious disease with up to 90% of unvaccinated people getting infected if exposed to a sick person. Unfortunately, in bad cases it can cause pneumonia or even encephalitis, which is a swelling of the brain. And for every 1,000 kids that get sick, around 2 will die.

Prior to the introduction of the MMR vaccine about 500 died from the measles every year. But now fewer children are getting vaccinated than in the past decades meaning they can not only get this disease, but they can spread it once they become infected. And for those traveling overseas, especially to Europe, this vaccine is more important than ever.