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Come, let us reason together.  Mark Twain famously quoted British PM Benjamin Disraeli, “there are three kinds of lies:  lies, damned lies, and statistics.”  Generally, this is true, but sometimes statistics don’t lie.  In the case of measles, the statistics speak truth. The measles vaccine was developed in 1963, and combined with the mumps and rubella vaccines in 1971, known as the MMR vaccine.  Children are given the first shot between 12-15 months old, and another between 4 and 6 years old.  Thus has it been for well over 40 years.  In the 52 years since the measles vaccine as...

Health officials in Arizona, host state of Sunday's Super Bowl, have asked people who may have been exposed to measles to isolate themselves ... Seven cases have been confirmed and 1,000 people across three counties may have been exposed .. Two of the seven confirmed cases are in Maricopa County, which is hosting the NFL championship game, the county's health department confirmed Tuesday. Because the highly contagious virus can linger in the air for two hours, health officials have asked those who may have been exposed to avoid doctors' offices, emergency rooms or urgent-care centers

U.S. experienced record number of cases last year. A measles outbreak whose spread originated at Disneyland has grown to 95 cases. ... 79 of those in infections are in California and 52 of them can be linked directly to Disney Parks. The rest are in Michigan, Arizona, Utah, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Nebraska and Mexico. ... The U.S. experienced a record number of measles cases last year, with 644 infections from 27 states despite being largely eliminated in 2000.

Cue the pro-vaccine crowd's b.s. arguments as to why this is doesn't matter and we should all keep taking the risk shooting up our children in the hopes this won't happen to us. Via Daily Mail: A five-year-old girl has died in hospital three days after developing a strain of the flu that she was vaccinated against – as a deadly outbreak of the virus continues to sweep across the country. Keira Driscoll was prescribed steroids and a nebulizer at a Quick Care clinic after she started feeling unwell with a cough and a fever at her home in Clark...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A health warning. The extremely contagious measles virus is back. An outbreak that started at Disneyland is starting to sweep the country.Christie Ileto has the push for children to get vaccinated.Measles was thought to have been eliminated in the U.S. 15 years ago. Now its back, targeting those who haven’t been immunized.The outbreak that started in California’s Disneyland is expanding. At least 75 cases of measles span six states.“It’s scary to think the happiest place on Earth is infected with measles,” one Disney employee said.For this Disney employee, knowing co-workers are infected is cause for concern. Measles...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A health warning. The extremely contagious measles virus is back. An outbreak that started at Disneyland is starting to sweep the country. Christie Ileto has the push for children to get vaccinated. Measles was thought to have been eliminated in the U.S. 15 years ago. Now its back, targeting those who haven’t been immunized. The outbreak that started in California’s Disneyland is expanding. At least 75 cases of measles span six states. “It’s scary to think the happiest place on Earth is infected with measles,” one Disney employee said. For this Disney employee, knowing co-workers are infected...

There are now 51 confirmed cases of the highly contagious virus across California, three other states and Mexico, and the Orange County Health Care Agency said the reports of new cases “indicate the measles outbreak will continue to spread.” Health officials had hoped to contain the outbreak to Disneyland visitors who were at the park between Dec. 17 and 20, when the virus spread from perhaps a single infected person or an ill family. But Orange County is now reporting six new cases of measles involving people who did not visit the Anaheim attraction during that period. State officials said...

Five more people who visited Disney theme parks in California last month have fallen ill with measles, bringing the number of cases in the state to a dozen, local health officials said Friday. Six patients in Orange County have been diagnosed with the illness who visited the local theme parks last month, and only one was fully vaccinated against the disease, said Nicole Stanfield, a spokeswoman for the county’s health care agency

At least nine people – including two unvaccinated Riverside County siblings – contracted measles after visiting Disneyland Resort in mid-December, state health officials said Wednesday. Public health officials are also investigating three additional cases of suspected measles, which is highly contagious, and a spokesman with the department said it would not be surprising to see more cases. All 12 reported visiting Disneyland or Disney California Adventure between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20. {snip} Of the nine confirmed cases linked to Disneyland, only one was vaccinated, according to the state Department of Public Health.

A case of red measles, also known as Rubeola, was diagnosed earlier this week in Moorseville, North Carolina -- worrying health officials and highlighting the renewed threat of measles in this country. The infected person was unvaccinated and had recently returned from a trip to India confirmed Rebecca Carter, the public information officer for Mecklenburg county. Carter said she could not release any additional details such as the age or sex of the person due to patient confidentiality. Dr. William Schaffner said this case is no trivial matter, warning that measles is highly contagious, spreading easily through coughing and sneezing....

An Ohio measles outbreak tied to unvaccinated Amish travelers who visited the Philippines has reached 66 cases — the most in a single state in the U.S. since 1996, health officials said Monday. It’s part of a larger surge of measles nationwide that has topped last year’s 186 cases and is closing in fast on the 220 cases reported in 2011, the most since the highly contagious disease was considered eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest official CDC figures logged 161 cases as of May 3, but there have...

In 1998, British Doctor Andrew Wakefield published research findings in Britain's famed medical journal The Lancet linking autism to a children’s vaccine (MMR) for measles, mumps and rubella. The doctor’s claims resulted in a panic as they “…triggered a slump in immunization levels, outbreaks of infectious disease and worldwide public worry.” In 2004, London Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer revealed that Dr. Wakefield had literally MADE UP the research which showed autism resulting in a matter of days after children had been vaccinated. Deer found that a group of attorneys was paying Wakefield large sums to discredit the MMR vaccine....

Of all the things to be nostalgic for, infectious diseases probably don’t make it onto many lists. However, if you happen to pine for the good old days when measles was an active public health threat, I have good news for you. The anti-vaccine crowd is bringing it back. There is currently an outbreak of measles in New York City. Considered eliminated in the United States in 2000, last year saw a record number of outbreaks around the country. It’s only three months into 2014, and not only is the nation’s largest city seeing cases in several boroughs, but other...

Thousands of San Francisco Bay Area residents may have been exposed to measles last week when an unvaccinated student at the Unversity of California, Berkeley, attended classes and rode the area's BART transit system. Public health officials in Contra Costa County, outside of San Francisco, said anyone riding BART from Feb. 4 to Feb. 7 during the morning or late evening commutes could have been exposed to the highly contagious respiratory virus. The young man in his 20s lives in the county and was confirmed to have measles on Wednesday. He was likely infected while traveling recently in Asia, health...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Deadly diseases, once nearly wiped out, are making a frightening comeback in Maryland and across the country. Now — a warning that parents who don’t vaccinate their children are putting others at risk. Linh Bui explores an alarming and controversial trend. Measles, mumps, whooping cough — all deadly diseases. Until recently — virtually eliminated thanks to vaccines that prevent kids from getting sick. But now doctors see an alarming trend — more and more people are coming down with these diseases. “Kids die from measles on a regular basis. Kids are in hospitals and can die from...

A Texas megachurch connected to a pastor who has openly questioned the benefits of modern medicine has been forced to host vaccination clinics after 21 members of the congregation contracted measles. The outbreak started when a person who contracted measles overseas visited Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, located about 20 miles north of Fort Worth, Texas. Officials with area health departments said those affected by the outbreak range in age from 4-months to 44-years-old. All of the school-age children with measles were homeschooled, and the majority of those who were infected had not been vaccinated. 'If it finds a...

An outbreak of measles tied to a Texas megachurch where ministers have questioned vaccination has sickened at least 21 people, including a 4-month-old infant -- and it’s expected to grow, state and federal health officials said. “There’s likely a lot more susceptible people,” said Dr. Jane Seward, the deputy director for the viral diseases division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sixteen people -- nine children and seven adults -- ranging in age from 4 months to 44 years had come down with the highly contagious virus in Tarrant County, Texas, as of Monday. Another five cases are...

The Kennedy family name is laden with history and brings to mind a definite set of characteristics: glamor, power, intelligence, wealth, influence. Kennedys have had their name on a president, numerous senators, representatives, ambassadors, and other high office holders. The Kennedy dynasty, if you wish to call it that, has seen its share of triumphs and disasters, of course. I need not go into detail; scores of books have been written about them, from putting humans on the Moon and the championing of civil rights to personal tragedies of assassination, death, scandal, and more. Most of these issues are in...

Enlarge Image Credit: D. Cima/American Red Cross Measles deaths dropped dramatically in the first decade of the 21st century, but progress has stalled since 2007, new estimates show. A report from the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Pennsylvania State University calculates that global measles deaths fell from 535,000 in 2000 to 139,000 in 2010—an impressive 74% reduction, but short of WHO's goal of 90%. More worryingly, the paper, released in The Lancet today, shows that those numbers have essentially remained flat since 2007. The measles virus is one of the...

How wonderful, the next time your city wants to host some big international event, think twice, now we have measles outbreak that is directly linked to the superbowl, it's already now in the schools here, spreading, uggh !!! A person from another country stopped over for a visit, they had the measles ... http://www.indystar.com/article/20120215/LOCAL/202150316/Noblesville-Schools-cancels-activities-due-measles-cases?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com