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The largest outbreak of measles in the United States in more that two decades is completely preventative if parents will make sure their children are given the safe, reliable vaccine, the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services said Friday morning.
“People don’t know how deadly measles can be,” Deputy Secretary Eric D. Hargen said. “It used to kill more people that diseases like polio, a hundred thousand people worldwide last year. But now we are starting to see an uptick in measles here, and it’s completely preventable, this outbreak.”
During an appeared on WDUN’s “Morning Edition with Bill Maine,” Hargen urged parents to talk to their doctors about the vaccine and to make certain their children are protected against the disease.
Already in 2019, more than 700 people have fallen ill in 22 states, including six cases in Georgia, according to information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The largest outbreaks have been in New York and Washington state, the CDC said. Measles had been declared eliminated this country in 2000, but the CDC is concerned that the disease gets regain a foothold in the U.S. again.
“Having had such success controlling this disease among others, people sort of want to rely on the immunity that has built up in the United States,” Hargen said. “And we really do have a great record.”
But he said the disease is incredibly contagious. He said that a person is contagious days before they being to show symptoms, and that nine out of 10 people who encounter a person with measles with contract the disease, unless they’ve been immunized.
“We have been vaccinating millions of children for decades,” he said. “We have full information about this vaccine and its side effects. This is a safe vaccine and the consequences of not getting vaccinated and getting the measles in so bad for both the child and the community.”
Hargen’s appearance on WDUN came at the end of Infant Immunization Week.
