Blame the vaccination-avoidance trend. According to a report from WHO, measles is breaking out in Europe. Since January, this highly contagious disease has caused 26,000 cases, over 7000 hospitalizations and 9 known deaths. As Jean-Yves Grall, French Director-General for Health told the BBC:
"France can simply not afford to have deaths, painful and costly hospitalisations, disruptions to work and school from a completely vaccine-preventable disease."
Thanks to modern travel, the European outbreak caused new outbreaks in Canada, Brazil and Australia. Lack of vaccinations is blamed. Is the US next? If so, Colorado, with the second highest rate of vaccination refusal in the country, is likely to get hit. Especially as people travel more over the holiday season, the potential for exposure to infected people increases.
Measles can strike any unvaccinated person, child or adult. As the WHO notes, measles is one of the leading causes of death in young children worldwide, with 18 death per hour from measles in 2008. With the recent spike in developed countries, the statistics for 2011 will likely be worse.
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