Measles Vaccines Have Saved the Lives of 20 Million People in the Last 15 Years, Says WHO

When the measles flare-up occurred approximately two years back at Disneyland, anti-vaccine activists treated it with ridicule and contempt. They dismissed the infectious disease that was caused by the most contagious virus known by the name of "Mickey Mouse measles." People even went on to the extent of labeling this calamity a "no big deal." They vociferously spoke about their childhood memories of developing the disease and then recovering. Sadly, not everyone was lucky enough since the outbreak led to a lot of deaths.

A recent report released by the World Health Organization states that there were 134,200 cases of deaths because of measles in 2015, which translates to 367 deaths every day. A whopping 2.6 million people were killed in 1980 from measles.

These figures certainly prove that measles is indeed a big deal. The virus is highly infectious and fatal. On account of this magnanimous catastrophe, public health officials across the world are putting their best foot forward to get every single individual vaccinated.

In the latest edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assesses the impact of measles vaccination throughout the world. The results are breathtaking as well as encouraging. According to the report, nearly 651,600 individuals died of measles in 2000 despite growing awareness among the global public. However, the number sharply declined to 134,200 in 2015.

Now, in the absence of measles vaccine, the CDC states that about 1.5 million people would have perished every single year just because of measles, which is a genuinely breathtaking statistic. This indicates that vaccination saved the lives of over 20 million people from 2000 to 2015 purely from measles. This triumph exhibits  the very best of the private sector and the government working together for the well-being of humanity.