What Happened to Measles Encephalitis in the United States?
Let's look at the effect of getting everyone vaccinated and protected on cases of measles encephalitis.
Measles and measles encephalitis used to be pretty common in the United States.
Of course, that was before we had a measles vaccine.
What Happened to Measles Encephalitis in the United States?
And once we got that measles vaccine, can you guess what happened to cases of measles and measles encephalitis?
That’s right, they started to disappear!
Sure, measles encephalitis isn’t actually listed on the above chart, but you understand that was the reason for the drop in post-infectious encephalitis, right?
The measles encephalitis case count correlates very well with the number of measles cases in that year.
And once measles cases start to drop, what happens?
So does the incidence of measles encephalitis!
There were only 19 cases of measles encephalitis in 1968!
That’s not surprising, as the measles case count had also dropped, to just 22,231 cases.
In contrast, in 1964, there were at least 300 cases of measles encephalitis!
Of course, they had more measles cases that year too - over 450,000 cases.
Fortunately, though, as more and more people got vaccinated and protected, both the measles case count and the number of people who got measles encephalitis continued to drop.
“Extensive vaccination against measles in the United States has accounted for a sizable reduction in the number of cases of measles and measles encephalitis, as well as deaths resulting from measles.”
The benefits from 10 years of measles immunization in the United States.
As did measles deaths!
“The secular decline of cases associated with childhood infections has followed the decline in the national incidence of measles, mumps, and rubella infections that began with the effective vaccination against these diseases (Tables 9 and 10).”
Encephalitis Surveillance Annual Summary: 1977
Don’t let them return.
“No encephalitis deaths associated with mumps virus were reported after 1986, and five (71%) of seven post-measles encephalitis deaths occurred during 1990–1992, at the time of a resurgence of measles in the United States.”
Trends in encephalitis-associated deaths in the United States
Get vaccinated and help Stop the Outbreaks.
