Updates on measles epidemics in U.S. and worldwide

A few items of note regarding measles outbreaks during the past few years:

• We've written several times about the 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana that sickened 34 (such as here and here). This AP story from late last month confirms what was widely speculated to be the cause of the outbreak: a 17-year old unvaccinated girl who traveled to a Romanian orphanage as part of a church mission trip, according to CDC.

• Farther from home, PLoS Medicine published yesterday a paper with the provocative (but accurate) title: "Unacceptably high mortality related to measles epidemics in Niger, Nigeria, and Chad," looking at mortality rates in three epidemics in 2004 and 2005. Accompanying the paper is an editorial titled "Measles still has a devastating impact on unvaccinated populations." To those close to global vaccination programs, the title will likely seem laughably obvious, but the paper is a noble effort to draw attention to the continued suffering caused by a completely preventable disease.