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Asahi Shimbun EDITORIAL: Measles epidemics
Asahi Shimbun EDITORIAL: Measles epidemics
05/22/2007
The new academic year has just begun, but universities and high schools are canceling classes because of a measles epidemic.
05/22/2007
Infants and small children are usually the ones susceptible to measles, and an epidemic among those over 15 years old is quite unheard of.
Generally, if you catch measles once, then you are immune for the rest of your life. But in the latest epidemic, many of those infected had been inoculated as children.
The inoculations apparently failed to provide sufficient immunity, or the vaccine wore off with time.
Even with some level of immunity, the symptoms will be light after a measles infection. But in such cases, those infected will feel well enough to go out and may inadvertently infect many other people.
High school and university students have a much wider mobility range than infants, which may have contributed to the latest epidemic.
Experts are calling upon people who have never had measles or the vaccine, especially those within the epidemic areas, to get inoculated immediately.
Measles epidemics usually peak in the period between April and June. We must take measures not to spread the current epidemic.
Japan is an exception among developed countries to have such an epidemic.
National projects have controlled measles outbreaks in North and South America, Europe, and Asian countries like South Korea.
Some countries have succeeded in "eliminating" measles, meaning they have virtually no patients of the disease.
It is not rare for Japanese measles patients to travel abroad. Countries, including the United States, find this troublesome and say Japan is a major "measles exporter."
The World Health Organization has set a goal to eliminate measles from the Western Pacific area, including Japan, by 2012. Japan must rid itself of the "measles exporter" status as soon as possible.
People tend to take measles lightly, but this is a very serious disease.
After an incubation period of about 10 days, fevers, coughs and other symptoms similar to a cold start to appear.
After that, a red rash develops over the body. From this stage, about one in a thousand will contract encephalitis or pneumonia, and about 15 percent of those patients will die.
In very rare cases, the disease causes brain damage.
The measles virus is highly contagious and there is no cure after infection. Prevention by building up immunity with a vaccine is the only solution.
The most important and urgent thing to do is to ensure the country has a thorough and effective vaccination program. In countries that have succeeded in containing measles, it is common practice to give two doses of the measles vaccine.
Since last fiscal year, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has begun this double vaccination program; children are inoculated when they are 1 year old, and again during the year before they enter elementary school. An inoculation rate over 90 percent is believed sufficient to prevent an epidemic.
In a survey conducted last autumn, the inoculation rate for 1-year-olds was adequate, but the rate for the second shot was quite poor. It is necessary to make people, particularly parents, aware of the necessity and importance of double vaccinations.
It is also important to ascertain the occurrence of measles patients.
Currently, the government receives information from only a handful of medical institutions, so the national number of patients is only an inference from that limited information. Nobuhiko Okabe, director of the national Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, said all cases need to be reported.
But the government must first show that it is committed to eliminating measles from this country.
--The Asahi Shimbun, May 21(IHT/Asahi: May 22,2007)