'The US losing its measles-free status is a step backward, a global risk'

Thanks to widespread vaccination, measles had been considered "eliminated" as a continuously transmitted disease in the United States since 2000, but no longer. An independent committee of experts, which reports to the director of the Pan American Health Organization, has determined that the United States no longer meets the requirements to be considered a country that has eliminated measles, according to CNN. The decision was widely anticipated after years of declining vaccination rates and rising measles cases, but it nonetheless represents a stain on the country's public health policy. "A huge step backward, which implies a global risk and is not limited to the US alone: the measles virus is in fact highly infectious, and its greater circulation worldwide increases the risk even in individual countries, including Italy." So says Massimo Andreoni, a member of the Superior Health Council and professor emeritus of Infectious Diseases at Tor Vergata University of Rome, commenting to ANSA on the United States' loss, after 26 years, of its status as a measles-free country according to the analysis of an independent committee, following years of declining vaccination rates and rising infection cases. "Even more serious than the news of the loss of measles-free country status is the recent news of the deaths of several American children precisely because of measles. We are living through a very complex period for healthcare at the global level," says Andreoni, "but it should make us reflect that this setback occurred in a country like the US, which has always been a beacon in the advancement of research." And the United States, the infectious disease specialist recalls, "was also the first country to launch measles vaccinations in the 1970s of the last century and to have eradicated the disease." A milestone that has been lost, while the WHO, he notes, has set 2030 as the target for global measles elimination. Difficult to achieve, especially now: "An attitude of distrust toward science and vaccinations is spreading. In the US, this attitude is leading to an increase in mortality, and it is above all children who are paying the price." But this situation, Andreoni warns, "must also be a warning for Italy." In our country, in fact, "a decline is being recorded especially in booster doses of measles vaccinations, and this is already causing an increase in cases. We hope we do not soon have to record deaths as well, given that the fatality rate of measles is one death per thousand cases, and we," Andreoni points out, "are not very far off, recording about 400-500 cases a year with an upward trend." Therefore, "public trust in science and vaccinations must be increased. But the point," the expert emphasizes, "is that distrust of vaccines is directly linked to their very effectiveness, since people do not perceive the risk of a disease because, precisely thanks to vaccines, that disease virtually disappears. The risk, however, is always present if we lower our guard." In short, "we are facing a very dangerous trend and, starting with the US," Andreoni concludes, "a possible new resurgence is to be expected for other infectious diseases as well." Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA