Anti-Vaxxers Take Heed: CDC to Send Experts to Samoa as Death Toll from Measles Outbreak Grows to 32

Interesting article as Samoa is my medical school home country. It brings up many points about vaccines in general. There is such a pronounced anti-vaxxer push especially here in the USA, and what is happening in Samoa is a prime example of the consequences of not having a vaccinated population. Unnecessary deaths. How’s that anti-vaxxer rhetoric working out for people? Tell that to the 32 families in a population of 200,000 whose child just died.  The total number sick including the deaths is over 2400. That’s an attack rate of 1.2% where it could be 0. “Samoa has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the world, with only 31% of infants receiving the measles vaccine in 2018, according to the World Health Organization.” I think parents around the world need to take heed as according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration, just two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective in preventing measles.

REFERENCES:

  1. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/11/27/cdc-send-experts-samoa-death-toll-measles-outbreak-grows/
  2. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/fda-brief/fda-brief-fda-reiterates-importance-vaccines-such-measles-mumps-and-rubella-mmr-vaccine
  3. https://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccination.html

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