Measles, which afflicted most American children with red blotches just two generations ago, is nearing extinction in the United States, a feat that some health officials liken to the victories against smallpox and polio.
Federal health officials logged only 37 measles cases nationwide in 2002, down from 116 the year before. California also recorded the fewest cases in its history, five, down from 40 in 2001.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday January 28, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 13 inches; 470 words Type of Material: Correction
Measles -- An article in Sunday's Section A about efforts to eliminate measles misspelled the country Colombia as Columbia.
"This has been a dramatic success story of the vaccination program," said Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The success seen in the United States, however, only accentuates the failures in the developing world. Globally, measles remains the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths among children younger than 5. Thirty million children worldwide contract the virus annually, and 745,000 died from it in 2001 -- half of them in Africa.
In 1990, the World Summit for Children set a goal of vaccinating 90% of children worldwide against measles by 2000. It didn't come close. The global immunization rate hovered around 70% throughout the decade, according to UNICEF. Coverage in sub-Saharan Africa dropped from 62% in 1990 to 50% in 1999.
Some call this performance inexcusable given the effectiveness and low cost of the vaccine -- less than a dollar per child. But others note that measles has been eclipsed by other major health concerns such as eradicating polio and treating AIDS.
"It's unacceptable for children to die from measles, when definitely they could be protected by immunization," said Mohammad Jalloh, a UNICEF spokesman. "That's why we are moving now to make sure that we intensify the campaigns."
The progress in the Western Hemisphere is, at least, a reminder of what is possible. Cases have declined from a high of about 250,000 in 1990 to an all-time low of 548 in 2001. Because of outbreaks in Venezuela and Columbia, that number increased to 2,572 last year.
"The countries in this region have demonstrated that it's possible to eradicate this disease, as was the case of polio," said Gina Tambini, director of vaccines and immunization at the Pan American Health Organization. The Western Hemisphere rid itself of polio in 1991, while the disease remained a problem in many other areas.
Before the first measles vaccine was approved 40 years ago, the virus affected up to 4 million U.S. children a year, hospitalizing 100,000 and killing several thousand.
