First, the good news: Deaths from measles have dropped significantly since 2000. According to data released by the World Health Organization last month, the number of children around the world who have died from measles declined by 79% between 2000 and 2014.  This is a huge accomplishment. Before 2000, and the inclusion of measles in the Millennium Development Goals, measles killed half a million children each year, despite the availability of an effective measles vaccine. In 2014, the WHO reported a drop to nearly 115,000 deaths. 

That number is still far too high. It amounts to 314 children dying from measles every day. And this is a disease that can be prevented in a relatively straightforward way, 

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases in the world. It spreads quickly and easily. If left untreated, measles can cause brain swelling that can kill or permanently maim its host. It’s most deadly in children under the age of 5 and pregnant women. The World Health Organization says that in places without adequate health services, 10% of all measles infections can lead to death. And, just a few countries, mostly in sub-saharan africa where immunization rates are low, account for most of the deaths. 

The sheer virulence of measles, and its deadliness is a huge cause of concern for people in the developing world, which share the brunt of measles deaths. 

But while the overall picture of measles deaths is vastly improving, there are some troubling new trends that may make this disease harder to defeat. For one, while measles is on the decline globally, it’s been on the increase in Europe and the United States. 

Earlier this year, the USA experienced its first measles death in a decade. An adult woman in Washington State died from measles after she likely caught the disease from someone at a medical facility.  The details are vague due to privacy concerns, but the woman was reported to have had a suppressed immune system from medications she was taking to treat an existing medical condition. 

That this happened at all is a horrible reminder that measles is a profoundly opportunistic predator that will find vulnerable people like this woman.  But that this happened in Washington state is telling. Washington, you see, is one of the least-vaccinated states in the USA and a place where many parents have opted their children out of their vaccine schedules over the mistaken belief that there is a link between vaccines and autism. That link has been refuted time and time again. But the myth persists. 

This graph from the CDC shows a huge spike in measles cases in the USA in 2014, linked in large part to an outbreak at Disneyland in late last year. The numbers are down a bit for 2015, possibly because the publicity generated by the Disneyland outbreak inspired more parents to vaccinate their children. 

The situation in Europe is even worse, where there have been 22,000 cases of measles and multiple deaths in 2014 and 2015. 

And one thing we know about measles is that it will keep spreading in a popuation until vaccination rates exceed 95% of that population. There is already a huge challenge of getting to this rate in the developing world. The low vaccination rates in communities in Europe and the USA is an unnecessary barrier to the global fight against this deadly disease.