#140 Of measles and men

Since January 1, 2019, there have been nearly 900 confirmed US cases of measles across 24 states. This is 10 times greater than the number of cases in the US 3 years ago, and it is the largest outbreak the US has seen since 1994. The month of May also marks the first reported case of measles in the state of Pennsylvania, where BrainWaves is produced. So this week on the program, Jim Siegler speaks with Dr. Erika Mejia (pediatrician) about the medical and sociopolitical triggers for this outbreak, the misconceptions of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, and finally, what you can do to keep measles from "going viral"*. Produced by James E. Siegler and Erika Mejia. Music courtesy of Advent Chamber Orchestra, Coldnoise, Josh Woodward, Kevin McLeod, and Lee Roosevere. Sound effects by Mike Koenig and Daniel Simion. BrainWaves' podcasts and online content are intended for medical education only and should not be used for clinical decision making. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @brainwavesaudio for the latest updates to the podcast. REFERENCES Murch SH, Anthony A, Casson DH, Malik M, Berelowitz M, Dhillon AP, Thomson MA, Valentine A, Davies SE and Walker-Smith JA. Retraction of an interpretation. Lancet. 2004;363:750. Perry RT and Halsey NA. The clinical significance of measles: a review. The Journal of infectious diseases. 2004;189 Suppl 1:S4-16. Campbell H, Andrews N, Brown KE and Miller E. Review of the effect of measles vaccination on the epidemiology of SSPE. Int J Epidemiol. 2007;36:1334-48. Poland GA and Jacobson RM. The age-old struggle against the antivaccinationists. The New England journal of medicine. 2011;364:97-9. Maglione MA, Das L, Raaen L, Smith A, Chari R, Newberry S, Shanman R, Perry T, Goetz MB and Gidengil C. Safety of vaccines used for routine immunization of U.S. children: a systematic review. Pediatrics. 2014;134:325-37. Bester JC. Measles and Measles Vaccination: A Review. JAMA Pediatr. 2016;170:1209-1215. Bester JC. Not a matter of parental choice but of social justice obligation: Children are owed measles vaccination. Bioethics. 2018;32:611-619. Fournet N, Mollema L, Ruijs WL, Harmsen IA, Keck F, Durand JY, Cunha MP, Wamsiedel M, Reis R, French J, Smit EG, Kitching A and van Steenbergen JE. Under-vaccinated groups in Europe and their beliefs, attitudes and reasons for non-vaccination; two systematic reviews. BMC Public Health. 2018;18:196. Trump’s tweet: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/449525268529815552?lang=en *Truth-be-told, measles claims the lives of 100,000 people around the globe every year. It has already gone viral. This was just a figure of speech.