Measles Vaccine

Measles cases rose globally by nearly 20% in 2022, and measles deaths increased by almost half, according to data published Thursday in MMWR by the CDC and WHO.

Almost 40 million children missed their first or second dose of measles vaccine in 2021 — a new record — as measles vaccine coverage reached its lowest level since 2008, according to a report in MMWR.

Misinformation and disruptions in care during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to troubling trends in vaccine uptake among children in the United States, according to Sterling Ransone, MD, FAAFP, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Phase 3 trial results of Regeneron’s casirivimab and imdevimab regimen showed an 81.6% reduced risk for COVID-19 over 2 to 8 months of follow up compared with placebo. A report on the data was the top story in infectious disease last week.

In 2020, more than 22 million infants globally did not receive a first dose of measles vaccine — the largest number in 2 decades, according to a report published Wednesday in MMWR.

Globally, more than 17 million children did not receive the first dose of a vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in 2020 as coverage fell to levels not seen in 14 years, researchers reported in MMWR.

The national vaccine exemption rate among children entering kindergarten in the 2019-2020 school year was 2.5% from at least one vaccine, the same rate as the previous year, new data published in MMWR showed.

Although pediatric measles vaccine coverage has largely improved globally over the past decade, more than half of low- and middle-income countries included in a study published in Nature experienced slowed progress, researchers reported.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported that a person with an infectious case of measles visited Disneyland and a coffee shop last week, potentially exposing many others to the highly contagious virus.

Although the United States appears to have avoided losing its nearly 20-year status as a measle-free nation, there have been at least 1,243 cases of measles from 31 states reported to the CDC thus far in 2019 — more than any year since 1992.