‘The Child Is Terrified’: Doctors on the Front Lines of a Measles Comeback Speak Out

KFF Health News reports that measles has come roaring back, with confirmed cases hitting a thirty-five-year high — and it's only July. Together, this year and last have seen more cases than the previous twenty-five years combined, driven largely by domestic outbreaks and falling vaccination rates. For the first time in a quarter century, the U.S. no longer meets a key criterion for having eliminated measles as a public health threat, in part because Utah's outbreak has dragged on since June twenty twenty-five. Nearly four hundred people have been hospitalized across the past two years, three have died, and at least three suffered brain swelling with lingering symptoms. Utah pediatricians on the front lines described unvaccinated children hunched over and struggling to breathe, and parents wracked with regret. As former CDC immunization leader Anne Schuchat put it, the return of measles is a wake-up call.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton