USA TODAY International Edition
FDA issues ‘urgent’ vaccine assurance
As the number of measles cases spirals upward – spread mostly by those who refuse to vaccinate – the FDA took the unusual step Monday of reminding the public that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and effective.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that there were an additional 71 cases last week, bringing the total to 626 cases in 22 states since Jan. 1, the nation’s secondhighest total since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.
Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said it “deeply concerns us” that measles has again emerged as a threat. It is an “urgent public health priority” to monitor measles, mumps and rubella and raise awareness about the importance of immunization, he said.
“We cannot state strongly enough: The overwhelming scientific evidence shows that vaccines are among the most effective and safest interventions to both prevent individual illness and protect public health,” Marks said. “Vaccinating against measles, mumps and rubella not only protects us and our children, it protects people who can’t be vaccinated, including children with compromised immune systems due to illness and its treatment, such as cancer.”
The number of cases this year is on pace to surpass the 667 cases in 2014, the largest number since the disease was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000.
Paul Offit, director of the vaccine education center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said it’s helpful that an FDA official issued a statement on the vaccine’s safety because it’s another voice for hesitant parents.
He said 18 studies affirmed the safety of the vaccine, including a decade-long study of more than 650,000 children in Denmark that compared children who received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine with those who did not. The results released this year concluded there was no increased risk of autism in children who had the vaccine and no evidence that it triggered autism in susceptible children.
“I am not sure how many more studies need to be done,” Offit said. “I can’t believe we are still talking about this issue that from a scientific standpoint has been resolved.”
Measles is common in parts of Europe, Asia, the Pacific Islands and Africa. Travelers can bring the disease to the USA from regions where outbreaks occur. The highly infectious virus spread through coughing and sneezing can circulate among clusters of unvaccinated children or adults.