<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In 2014, </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/australia" rel="" target="" title="Australia"><span>Australia</span></a><span> hit an important public health milestone: transmission of measles, the highly infectious virus that once killed millions of people across the globe every year, was eliminated.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Canada had achieved elimination in 1998; the US followed suit two years later.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But today, there are thousands of active cases in North America once again, while health authorities in NSW warned in mid-November that the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/measles-likely-spreading-community-sydney-nsw-health-warning/6ae681fd-251f-4228-a69e-4b6598840b47" rel="" target="" title="disease is likely spreading again in Sydney"><span>disease is likely spreading again in Sydney</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>So why, six decades after a highly effective and safe vaccine was introduced, is measles rising as a health threat once again?</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/gender-based-violence-coerced-directorships-what-is-it-how-to-get-help-everything-to-know-explained/487aeff4-33b3-4f13-b90d-1aa4885a58bb"><strong><span>The tax loophole leaving innocent Aussies with massive, secret debts</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>What is measles and why is it so serious?</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Measles is one of the most highly contagious human diseases.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/measles-cases-rises-vaccination-rates-declining-explained/0b2f7f5a-7ba2-4e78-9909-4f75e511052e" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>According to the Australian Centre for Disease Control, nine out of 10 people who are near a person who is infected with the virus will catch the disease themselves, whether through direct contact, coughing or sneezing, or even just breathing in the same air.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It can also be deadly, and there is no treatment for the disease.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Measles can lead to severe and fatal complications, such as acute encephalitis (brain inflammation, in layman's terms) and pneumonia.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the early 20th century, about 30 million people were infected and 2 million died from the virus every year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/driving-habits-tailgating-fail-to-indicate-cutting-in-mobile-phones-road-rules-fines-penalties/0bcc82df-9860-49cc-ab31-bfda1979f2d6"><strong><span>Australia's most annoying driving habit could cost you more than $500 in fines</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Is there a vaccine and how effective is it?</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While there's no treatment for measles, there is an extremely effective vaccine that stops its spread – which, according to the WHO, prevented more than 60 million deaths between 2000 and 2023.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Developed in the late 1950s following an outbreak of the disease in Massachusetts, the first measles vaccine was approved for use in 1961, before being introduced in Australia later that decade.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Since then, it's been improved and is today administered as a combination vaccination – either as MMR (measles–mumps–rubella), which is given to children from 12 months of age, or MMRV (measles–mumps–rubella–varicella) at 18 months.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Not only is the vaccine safe, it's highly effective, providing long-term – potentially lifelong – protection against infection in 99 per cent of people who receive it.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Australia, the jab is free for all children under the National Immunisation Program.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/hong-kong-high-rise-fire-how-did-it-become-so-deadly-what-we-know/6e884c71-1179-4e43-b8f2-c1401d1b3f38"><strong><span>How did the Hong Kong high rise fire turn so deadly, so quickly?</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>So why are cases on the rise again?</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While measles transmission was ended in large parts of the world – including the entire Americas region in 2016 – on the back of extensive vaccination programs, it was never fully eliminated globally.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Cases were still recorded in countries free from the virus like Australia, often in returned overseas travellers.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Because the disease is so contagious, vaccination rates need to be at 95 per cent or better to stop its spread, but levels have been dropping below that threshold in recent years.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/measles-spreading-canada-loses-measle-free-status/ec9be13c-0c3f-4dd6-8b74-56c4668819f8" rel="" target="" title="Canada, which has now lost its official measles-free status"><span>Canada, which has now lost its official measles-free status</span></a><span>, the WHO estimates that only 79 per cent of the population has had their second dose of a vaccine, down from 87 per cent in 2017.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Australia, vaccination rates are higher, but have still slipped under the 95 per cent mark and, according to Queensland Health, are "steadily going backwards".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-deal-with-heat-humidity-hot-weather-australia-explainer/98f003ed-0130-47d4-b815-2e1dff3a25dd"><strong><span>How to cool down on a swelteringly hot night</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While this has been in part attributed to growing anti-vax sentiment following the COVID-19 pandemic – and medical experts in America have expressed serious concern about the unproven, discredited links made between vaccines and autism by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr – measles prevention has been plagued by disinformation for decades.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In 1998, a paper in respected medical journal </span><em><span>The Lancet</span></em><span> claimed to have found a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That led to a drop in vaccination rates and an increase in measles cases, particularly in the United Kingdom and parts of North America.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>However, the paper was later found to be completely fraudulent, with no scientific evidence to back up its claims and a significant conflict of interest going undeclared by the author, Andrew Wakefield.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/new-nsw-puppy-laws-2025-breeder-identification-numbers-litter-limits-selling-rules-everything-to-know-explained/718be85f-f47b-48ec-8fa3-c80d184462c9"><strong><span>The $110,000 fine you could face if your dog has puppies</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em><span>The Lancet</span></em><span> later retracted the paper, and Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Authorities today are clear: the vaccine is both safe and effective.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Anyone born after 1965 needs to ensure they have had two doses of measles vaccine," NSW Health's Dr Mitchell Smith said after community spread of measles was suspected two weeks ago. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is safe and effective."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>:</span></em></strong><span> </span><em><strong><span>Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the</span></strong></em><span> </span><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Apple App Store</span></em></strong></a><span> </span><strong><em><span>and</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Google Play</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>.</span></em></strong></div></div>