measles

For further information, see Ukrainska Pravda, Kyiv Independent, and Reuters.

Bangladesh has launched an independent nationwide review of its immunization program as a major measles outbreak exposes gaps in childhood vaccination.

The assessment, supported by the World Health Organization, will examine staffing, vaccine supplies, refrigeration, surveillance, and service delivery.

Authorities are also working to vaccinate approximately 3.4 million previously missed or unvaccinated children.

By early October, around 202,000 suspected measles cases had been recorded, including approximately 22,000 laboratory-confirmed infections.

The crisis matters beyond Bangladesh because it demonstrates that past vaccination achievements require continuing institutional investment.

Effective disease prevention depends not only on vaccines, but on reliable systems capable of reaching every community.

I just wanna mention why this all matters.

I think I've probably said it a few times, but, like, so why should someone who doesn't care about a database design actually care? Well, measles.

So we now have over 4,000 cases, um, more than any year since we declared it eliminated in 2000.

From 2000 to 2024 combined, we've had more cases within the last two years.

Like, we know we've lost elimination status.

It is so bad right now.

Um, kindergarten measles vaccination across the nation went from 95.2% in 2019 to 2020 to 92.5% in 2024 to 2025.

I'm sure that's even dropped more, and almost all of the cases are in people who are unvaccinated or whose status is unknown.

[gentle guitar music] In 2000, the United States declared measles eliminated.

That didn't mean that nobody in the country would ever catch it again.

It meant the virus was no longer freely spreading within the United States.

New cases generally arrived with someone who had been infected elsewhere, and public health workers were able to stop those cases from turning into long-running chains of transmission via the systems, tools, and infrastructure they created for that purpose.

In early October of twenty twenty-six, Pennsylvania reported more than a thousand new measles cases this year, most of them part of an outbreak that began in April.

As of October seventh, the state had confirmed one thousand seventy-eight cases across forty-one counties, two hundred seven hospitalizations, and five measles-associated deaths.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, had counted nearly three thousand nine hundred cases through the beginning of the month, making this the worst year for measles in the US in decades.

Pennsylvania's latest update included seventy-four newly confirmed cases, though the state was careful to say that more than forty of those people had become sick over two weeks earlier.

In a perfect world, there's no pathogens, right? We live this wonderful life, but pathogens out there, you look at things like this.

Um, we talk about, you know, 20% of these little kids ending up in the hospital with measles, you know, you might have a febrile seizure.

We've talked about the issues, so yeah.

Well, I think George was, was smart.

And we keep talking about this, and, you know, just along the same lines, I don't know if there's been an update here, but, um, I saw this San Diego State football hit by mumps outbreak and 14 confirmed cases ahead of Pac-12 opener.

So we, we've talked a little bit about that vaccine, the MMR.

The mumps, measles, and rubella.

And actually, this is one of the things that maybe we'll get into at one point, but, um, also going to a second dose of the MMR, not only did it improve our measles coverage, but it also significantly improved our mumps protection.

I'm skeptical at best.

Let's talk about measles.

At the time of this podcast, there are 28 known measles cases in the state of Indiana from 10 different counties.

Not surprising given how infectious measles is that our kind of cluster of outbreak is increasing.

I also suspect that there are more measles cases that have just not been identified and reported to the Department of Health.

And so something to keep an eye on.

I'll link to the Department of Health's measles dashboard.

It's very good.

I'm very, very happy to welcome to this program for our Citizen Word segment, Dr. Paul Offit, who is the director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Joining us today to talk about his very important Philadelphia Citizen article entitled RFK Jr., Secretary of Measles Land.

I want to welcome to Evening Words for this week's Citizen Word segment, Dr. Paul Offit.

Dr. Paul, uh, welcome to the program.

Wow.

Dr. Paul Offit is the director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital Philadelphia.

Uh, the piece is called RFK Jr.: Secretary of Measles Land.

Dr. Paul, thank you so much for coming on and really breaking this really public health-oriented segment to get the information out to the people.

I mean, measles are s- more and more...

In fact, there's a new animated thing coming up called Mr.

Measles, trying to get people to get your measles vaccination.

Pay attention to that, yeah.

Yeah, because it's a, it's, it's completely something we had under control until we let people from God knows where into the country or let some religious fanatics, you know, do something, then, then they've...

That is, what do you think I've got, Mr. Boynton?

Measles.

Measles? Where could I possibly catch a childish disease like measles? I haven't been around any kids since last night.

Last night.

Tommy.

Be with us again next week at the same time for another comedy episode of Our Miss Brooks, Bob Lamond speaking.

This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.

Our Miss Brooks, Measles, completes tonight's presentation.

I, you know, part of the importance of this is that we've basically said, like, all these things that are happening have consequences.

People are gonna die, and yes, we- we'll get to measles, but worldwide here, deaths from cholera rose by 30% in 2025.

7,870 people died from cholera.

Cholera, oh my gosh.

Uh, we saw some, some good performance in Uganda in the past.

Uh, South Sudan has a lot of people concerned.

All right, measles.

Another person died.