A case of measles was confirmed on December 24th in Contra Costa County, and officials have now issued a warning that anyone who was shopping at multiple stores in Walnut Creek before Christmas Eve could have been exposed. The infected person was apparently shopping at Anthropologie on December 17 or 19, at Macy's or the Apple Store on December 18, and several other locations. [KTVU]
Immunology is at a pivotal moment. The huge successes in public health brought about by vaccines are now facing erosion, as anti-vaccination sentiments spread around the world and the United States cuts funding to domestic and overseas infectious-disease research. Measles, for example, was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 by the World Health Organization, but in July this year, there were more reported cases than in any year since 1992.
Nowhere in the north-east of England and Cumbria has the childhood measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination rate of 95% needed to achieve the "herd immunity" at which point disease does not spread, latest figures show.
