Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 29, 1993 TAG: 9310290011
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"We have seen measles virtually disappear in the United States in 1993," said Dr. William L. Atkinson of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Through the first six months of the year, there have been only 175 reported measles cases.
"This would be the lowest total of measles ever reported in the United States since reporting began," he said.
That contrasts with a time in 1989 to 1991, he said, when there were tens of thousands of measles cases, 132 deaths and 11,000 hospitalized.
The 175 cases reported for the first half of 1993 represents a 99 percent decrease from the nearly 14,000 cases reported for the first six months of 1990, during the peak of the epidemic.
Atkinson said that the major measles outbreak prompted federal, state and local health officials to mount a major campaign against the childhood disease.
"State and local health departments took on Herculean efforts to increase vaccination levels in children," he said. Vaccination rates among 2-year-olds increased from 65 percent reported in 1985 to about 83 percent in 1991, the latest year for which statistics are available. The results have been predictable, said Atkinson.
During the 1989-91 outbreak, there were pockets of infection throughout many of the nation's biggest cities, and most of the victims were preschool children, said Atkinson.
Now that picture has totally changed.
"We are no longer seeing those giant outbreaks in large cities," he said. "The largest outbreaks have all been in school kids, and the biggest we've seen is about 40 cases."
Since vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella are generally given together, Atkinson said there has been a corresponding decrease in those other childhood diseases as well. Mumps is near a record low rate of incidence in the nation, he said.
Despite the success of the campaign against measles, however, about 20 percent of preschoolers still have not been inoculated, so a potential for a resurgence remains, Atkinson said.
For other childhood vaccinations, the picture is worse.
"Our best estimates for 1991 indicate that levels for four doses of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis [whooping cough] are probably no better than 45 percent, and levels for three doses of oral polio vaccine are probably no better than 55 percent," said Atkinson.
"So while we are winning one battle, the war is far from over. We still have a long way to go."
Dr. Donald M. Poretz of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases said the experience with measles should warn the nation not to become complacent.
He said that before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, the U.S. routinely had 4 million to 5 million cases a year.
After the vaccine was introduced, the number of cases dropped by 1983 to only 1,500.
"Unfortunately, people became complacent and less vaccine was used" after that, said Poretz, resulting in the 1989-91 epidemic.
by CNB