Measles - a short history lesson

The UK Health Security Agency recently issued a press release, warning that too few children were vaccinated against measles.  With the benefits of vaccination and a developed healthcare system, it is easy to forget that measles was often a fatal disease for young children.  Table 1 shows just how deadly measles was at the start of last century without vaccination:

Table 1. Deaths under 5 years old in England Wales.  Source: Own calculations using ONS data.

Table 1 shows that thousands of under-5s died of measles annually in England & Wales.  How many under-5s died of measles in 2020?  Just the one.

One reason for this transformation is of course vaccination, as a measles vaccine has been available since 1963.  Indeed, it is so effective that:

During 2000–2018, measles vaccination prevented an estimated 23.2 million deaths [worldwide] making measles vaccine one of the best buys in public health.

WHO (2022)

Unsurprisingly, measles returns quickly when vaccination rates slide, as shown during the 2019 epidemic in Samoa.  The Government of Samoa had to declare a state of emergency and conduct a rapid programme of vaccination.  Of the 2,435 under-5s infected with measles, 61 died, giving a case-fatality rate for small children of 2.5% (source: own calculation using data from Government of Samoa press release 23).

Get your children jabbed now.