It’s been nearly 40 years now since any parent has heard a doctor declare “your child has smallpox.”
In 1980, the World Health Assembly officially declared that highly infectious - and highly lethal - disease eradicated.
One of the reasons smallpox was successfully eradicated was that it was a disease restricted to humans.
Yellow fever, in contrast, can also infect monkeys. If a mosquito bites an infected monkey, it can then pass along the disease to humans.
Much like smallpox, the measles virus cannot be spread by any other animal species.
So we don’t have to worry about monkeys passing along the disease. We only have to concern ourselves with ill-advised humans.
Sadly, anti-vaxxers still exist in virtually every community, and this one is no exception.
While their arguments are easily debunked (i.e. autism, toxic levels of mercury), they remain defiant.
Defiant - and highly responsible for the current state of affairs in British Columbia.
There is a measles crisis in B.C. - a crisis that could easily have been averted. As of April 16, there have been 27 confirmed measles cases in the province.
The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is proven 95 per cent effective after the first application, and 99 per cent effective after the second round.
That high success rate often leads to the argument, ‘If your child is already immunized, you don’t have to worry about mine.’
That argument is selfish.
A 99 per cent efficiency rating means there is still a one per cent chance that a vaccinated child could catch the disease.
If you don’t care enough about your own child to get a vaccination, please do it for the other children.
April 24-30 is World Immunization Week. Hopefully, someday we can devote this space to the eradication of measles, rather than attempting to convert the defiant.