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The Red Measles Virus Vaccine

Decent Essays

Measles (also known as rubeola or “red measles”) is an acute, febrile viral infection that was a very familiar childhood infection world-wide until the introduction of an attenuated live-virus vaccine in the 1960’s. Now it is rarely seen in the United States and the rest of the medically developed world, re-emerging usually only when and where there has been a lapse in routine immunization practices and the necessary high levels of vaccine coverage have dropped. On a global scale, prior to the measles vaccine, the effects of measles were devastating — millions died from measles each year in all parts of the world. However, global measles deaths are diminishing, decreased by 75% from an estimated 544,200 in 2000 to 145,700 in 2013 (Moss and Griffin, 2012; WHO, 2015 Feb). …show more content…

It became established in humans 5,000–10,000 years ago and became endemic in Middle Eastern river valley civilizations where populations became large enough to maintain the continuous transmission of the virus between humans (Moss and Griffin, 2012). The measles virus is a single-stranded, negative-sense, enveloped RNA virus of the genus Morbillivirus within the paramyxovirus family. It was isolated in 1954 by John Enders and Thomas Peebles from patients with observed Koplik spots. Humans are the only natural hosts of the measles virus; no other animal reservoirs

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