Region of the Americas is declared free of measles

[hyperpape]

The article explictly makes a distinction between endemic and imported cases, which answers my initial confusion that there still are measles cases in the US.

I wish it had described what made a case endemic rather than imported. Some of the outbreaks in the US have spread rather widely, but I guess that still doesn't count as endemic?

[bryondowd]

My understanding is that his disease has to be able to flourish in the region to be considered endemic. Any outbreak of measles in the US would be expected to die out completely after a while, rather than continue moving through the population indefinitely. This may be wrong, though.

[DubiousPusher]

Nice explanation here.

https://www.britannica.com/science/endemic-disease

[BorisVSchmid]

Must be for a strange value of "free", when you see http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html

  From January 2 to September 10, 2016, 54 people from 16 states (Alabama, 
  Arizona,California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, 
  Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah) were 
  reported to have measles.

It looks like that with "free" they mean that there is no self-sustainable epidemic possible anymore in the Americas, given the degree of vaccine coverage. Nice.

[lr4444lr]

... until it's not again: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/measles-outbrea...

The perils of easy global air travel.

[raymondh]

This declaration of being measles free seems premature when there are still cases occurring and when such a highly transmissible disease is still common elsewhere in the world.

http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html

[maxerickson]

The criteria seems to be elimination of endemic transmission.

Which I guess is a meaningful milestone.

[dopamean]

The anti-vaxxers here in Austin are doing their best to bring it back.

[splawn]

If you love measles and live in the US, don't worry... its not going anywhere [0]. Thanks to all the anti-vaxxer "do your own research" garbage people.

[0]http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html

[pavanred]

Can any one explain how this anti-vaccination thing started in the US, and how is it continuing?

I do not know much but I know that anti-vaccination and climate change are heavily politicized in US, if I am not wrong. How did this don't trust the experts in the field, I know better thing start?

No matter which side you lean politically, I would like to believe most people would want the best for the kids, and essentially if its health related most people would take their doctor/pediatrician's advice. So, why are there so many people not vaccinating their kids? Is there a portion of doctors who believe in this and advice against vaccinations to the parents? Or are the parents just ignoring doctors advice and choosing to not vaccinate by themselves? Or anything else?

[owlscouncil]

Hey, I was vaccinated, and still managed to contract the disease. Doesn't mean you shouldn't vaccinate your kids, kids.

Only positive thing about measles - you theoretically only get it once.

[kragen]

It makes me really unhappy to see comments on HN that liken human beings to garbage, even if they are ignorant human beings making dangerous choices. It makes me even more unhappy to see that such a comment is the #1 voted comment on a front-page story. If this situation is not corrected today, I will take a one-year break from commenting on HN. I encourage anyone else who values basic decency to other human beings to join me.

[fwn]

Didn't get any measles vaccination, though I'm in Germany.

I guess that makes me one of those garbage people.

[thornygreb]

So tell me this, polio and smallpox were eradicated, but I am 45 years old and never had a smallpox or polio vaccine, so that makes me an anti-vaxxer regarding those two, yet here we are and I don't see those diseases making big comebacks?

[j197]

When internal CDC employees are admitting to fraud and systemic corruption[1], it makes sense to do your own research. Conducting research is a welcome activity in most civilized groups.

[1]"Dr. Thompson has admitted in taped phone conversations and in a statement through his lawyer, that he and other authors of the study, which include senior officials at CDC, manipulated the data and violated study protocol to conceal their findings linking the MMR vaccine to autism." http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/05/03/836249/...

[lucasnemeth]

Why the quotes? "The americas", it's not written like that in the original tittle.

[mc32]

It's probably personal preference like putting or not putting quotes around a book title, movie title, etc. They're not scare quotes but rather quotes to highlight.

[archgoon]

Title is "Region of the Americas is declared free of measles". The current title "The Americas is declared free of measles" is ungrammatical.

[dang]

We reverted the title.