Measles News and Research

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Measles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. It remains a leading cause of death among young children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. An estimated 197 000 people died from measles in 2007, mostly children under the age of five.

Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family. The measles virus normally grows in the cells that line the back of the throat and the lungs. It is a human disease not known to occur in animals.

Cote d'Ivoire working to rebuild health care system under new presidential administration

"Ten months after the West African country of Cote d'Ivoire started to emerge from a presidential election crisis during which almost all hospitals and clinics had to shut down for a good six months because they had been vandalized, looted and occupied, the new government under President Alassane Ouattara is trying to make public health care a priority," including implementing "a new national health regulation, which came into effect on Mar. 1, that offers free health services to pregnant women, children under five years and people suffering from malaria," Inter Press Service reports.

15 Mar 2012

ScienceInsider reports on Lancet letters regarding CDC Center for Global Health

In a letter published Wednesday in the Lancet, officials from the CDC refute "point by point" three letters previously published in the journal that were critical of the agency's Center for Global Health, ScienceInsider reports.

11 Mar 2012

Doctor associated with MMR vaccine and autism link wins High Court appeal

Professor John Walker-Smith had been found guilty of professional misconduct following claims he took part in unapproved research that suggested links between the vaccine, bowel disease and autism. Professor Walker-Smith lost his license to practice in May 2010 along with Dr Andrew Wakefield, who led the research. A General Medical Council’s ‘fitness to practice’ panel found both men guilty of misconduct over the way the work was conducted after 217 days of deliberation – the longest disciplinary case in the body’s 150- year history.

8 Mar 2012

Yemen to launch measles vaccination campaign after increase in number of cases, deaths

"Measles has killed 126 children in Yemen since mid-2011, a consequence of the breakdown of basic health services during the year-long political crisis," and "in response ... , the Yemeni government has appealed for international assistance and an outbreak-response vaccination campaign will begin in the hardest-hit regions on 10 March," IRIN reports.

7 Mar 2012

Cities, states balancing health costs amid continuing economic problems

Some 29 states are dealing with a total budget deficit of $47 billion for fiscal 2013, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Unlike the federal government, nearly all states must balance their budgets every year. Though tax revenues are slowly recovering after bottoming out in 2010, they're still not back to pre-recession levels.

2 Mar 2012

WHO removes India from list of countries with endemic Polio

India is nearly free of deadly paralyzing viral infection polio. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad says the WHO removed India from the list Saturday after the country passed one year without registering any new cases. This means only three countries with endemic polio — Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. India must pass another two years without new cases to be declared polio-free.

27 Feb 2012

India taken off WHO list of polio endemic countries

"India was taken off a list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organization on Saturday, marking a massive victory for health workers battling the crippling disease" and "leav[ing] just three countries with endemic polio -- Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria," Agence France-Presse reports (2/26).

27 Feb 2012

WHO urging Afghans to vaccinate children for measles following outbreak in western region

The WHO "is calling on all Afghans to vaccinate their children after a recent measles outbreak that has been made worse by severe weather that hampers access to immediate treatment as well as low immunization coverage," the U.N. News Centre reports.

24 Feb 2012

PBS NewsHour blog discusses curable, preventable neglected tropical diseases with CDC experts

In this video report, PBS NewsHour's "The Rundown" examines curable and preventable diseases such as measles and river blindness that countries are focusing more effort on fighting. Mark Eberhardt, a neglected tropical diseases expert at the CDC, and Stephen Cochi, a measles and polio expert from the CDC, "describe the diseases and why they still need attention."

22 Feb 2012

MSF warns health, living conditions of refugees in Dadaab camp deteriorating

The medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Thursday said the conditions for hundreds of thousands of refugees living in Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp are worsening and people there "are experiencing a 'humanitarian emergency' because of the scaling back of aid work," Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports (2/16).

18 Feb 2012

MV-GFP extends survival of animals with medulloblastoma

A strain of measles virus engineered to kill cancer cells prolongs survival in a model of medulloblastoma that is disseminated in the fluid around the brain, according to a new study by researchers at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute and the Mayo Clinic.

16 Feb 2012

Yemen faces child malnutrition crisis after year of unrest

"A year of Yemen's turmoil has exacerbated the number of malnourished children under the age of five to around 750,000, UNICEF said Tuesday, appealing to the government and the international community to help develop the country's infrastructure to tackle the problem," the Associated Press reports (Al-Haj/Batrawy, 1/24).

25 Jan 2012

New NIST clinical SRM can help in accurate CMV detection and treatment

A new clinical Standard Reference Material (SRM) from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will help health care professionals more accurately diagnose and treat cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common pathogen that is particularly dangerous for infants and persons with weakened immune systems.

12 Jan 2012

Nigerian leaders sign onto Gates immunization challenge

"Nigeria's 36 Executive Governors and the Federal Capital Territory have signed up to the Nigeria Immunization Challenge launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last year," a Gates Foundation press release states.

10 Jan 2012

Blacklisted British doctor sues journal

A British doctor who lost his medical license in the U.K. in 2010 and who was accused in a journal last year of publishing bogus research filed a defamation suit this week in state District Court in Travis County.

9 Jan 2012

UNICEF aims to vaccinate 1.7M children against measles in DRC

A UNICEF measles immunization campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) aimed to vaccinate 1.7 million children under age five between December 19 and December 21, IRIN reports.

23 Dec 2011

A call for continued investment in global health, development

In this Politico opinion piece, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who chairs the non-profit Hope Through Healing Hands, writes, "Continued investment in the fight to end global AIDS is more than an investment in the lives of families and communities in developing nations -- it is an investment in security, diplomacy and our moral image worldwide."

17 Dec 2011