Everyone is at risk for measles; it's a highly contagious virus that can be avoided with the proper immunizations. Watch pediatrician Lisa Thornton, MD, discuss the scope of the measles virus, and how not being vaccinated creates the most risk.
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Everyone is at risk for measles, measles is highly contagious virus and before we started immunizing, there were three to four million cases every single year in the United States. So immunizations have been highly effective. In the most recent epidemic we saw almost 200 people infected with measles, but compared to three or four million that shows the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Many of the people who got measles in this epidemics were un-immunized in fact most of them were un-immunized or they had one immunization that did not confirm immunity and never got a second immunization that was not needed, so the most at risk people are those who have not immunized.
Lisa Thornton, MD, is a practicing pediatrician and a frequent television health commentator. She is the Medical Director of Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation for KidsRehab and an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.
