January 29, 2015 CDC press briefing on measles, and the anti-vaccination movement as a public health threat

This is a transcript of Thursday's Center for Disease Control (CDC) tele-briefing for the press on the state of measles in the United States in 2015: 

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/t0129-measles.html

A few key take-aways from the briefing:

In January (as of January 28), 84 people in 14 states have been reported as having measles.In 2014, there were over 600 cases.

Measles was declared "eliminated" in the United States in 2000. Between 2001 and 2010, the CDC saw a median of 60 cases a year in the US. This was due to the highly effective measles vaccine.

Measles is very contagious, something that may have faded from our collective memory after a decade that saw so few cases. From  http://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/transmission.html :

"Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing. Also, measles virus can live for up to two hours on a surface or in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed. If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses, or mouths, they can become infected. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.

"Infected people can spread measles to others from four days before to four days after the rash appears.

"Measles is a disease of humans; measles virus is not spread by any other animal species."

Some people don't realize that the complications of measles are quite serious, as shown in this Alberta Health Services slide:

This UNICEF infographic details the effectiveness of this vaccine and others:

So why are we seeing a resurgence in measles in the United States? Because of a small movement to forgo vaccines by people under a false belief that they're unsafe, despite the overwhelming agreement in the scientific community that parents should vaccinate their children except in a few rare circumstances. 

Unfortunately, the decision not to vaccinate effects more than the unvaccinated child. Unvaccinated children pose a risk to expectant mothers, children not yet old enough to be vaccinated, and even people who have been vaccinated: the vaccination is about 93% effective in preventing someone exposed to the measles from getting it. 

The backlash against the anti-vaxxer movement has been fierce:

Measles is a serious topic, one that no one can cover in one blog, and I don't have any medical qualifications to give advice. But I hope if you're unsure what to believe about the measles vaccine, you'll do your own research and make up your own mind. I hope you'll come to the conclusion that I have: the measles vaccine prevents deaths and can effectively eliminate measles.

Afterthought: I wanted to clarify why I chose this subject for a Business Continuity blog. If children are diagnosed with the measles, or their parents are afraid to take them out for fear of exposure, then it effects the workforce: more parents will miss work. If we witness a growing number of people diagnosed with the measles, it will effect a growing number of employees and possibly lead to staffing issues.

Any public health threat can effect an organization negatively, and business continuity professional have to take that into consideration when considering staffing.