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Health officials are urging parents to vaccinate their children against measles as cases grow across the country. In South Carolina, an outbreak there has infected more than 550 people.
Last year, the country saw the worst spread and deaths from measles since 1991. Through preventable vaccines, measles was considered eliminated from the United States in 2000. Now, it is at risk of losing that status.
This has a lot to do with declining child immunization rates across the country.
“This year, we haven’t had cases of measles in our state yet, but they’re coming. It’s inevitable,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical officer.
Last year, Michigan saw 30 cases of measles.
“One of the things that’s really frustrating for me as a physician, is I know the benefit that vaccines provide to our communities,” said Bagdasarian, “There are a lot of folks out there who haven’t seen a case of measles. In real life, I’ve seen patients with measles and taken care of this. I know how bad it can be.”
Measles can cause rashes, high fever, conjunctivitis and cough. It also decreases the immune system and can lead to pneumonia, encephalitis — or swelling of the brain — and sometimes death.
“About 20% of kids with measles will end up being hospitalized,” said Bagdasarian.
Young children are most at risk of contracting and having a severe reaction to measles. That is because most infants do not get the MMR vaccine until age 1.
Routine childhood vaccination rates, including the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, are decreasing year after year.
“In 2017, we were at about 75% of our little ones vaccinated against those routine diseases,” said Bagdasarian. “Not talking about flu or COVID or anything like that, just things like polio and measles, that number has declined from 75% down to 68%.”
According to 2024 data from the state, kindergarten vaccination waiver records in Kent County are some of the lowest in the state, meaning more kids are vaccinated. Which seems promising, but Dr. Kristin Oldenberg, the medical director for Kent County, says it’s all about perspective.
“It still really doesn’t meet the rate of immunizations that we need for herd immunity,” said Oldenberg, “So really, for herd immunity, we need about a 95% immunity rate, our immunization rate, and we don’t have that. We’re really just comparing ourselves to the other counties and to the state, all of which are below that threshold.”
The MMR vaccine is 97% effective at preventing measles.
“It is frustrating for me as a health care provider to know that we’ve got tools and that people aren’t using those tools to keep their children safe right now,” said Bagdasarian. “But I also have to understand that people are coming from a place where there are a lot of questions right now. People have doubts, and we’ve got to be able to have conversations about vaccines, where we’re talking about the science and the data behind vaccines, and not making this a political conversation, because this is not at all political. This is just purely a medical issue, a scientific issue, when we’ve got to treat it as such.”