An article published by Medical Daily names measles, obesity, fetal alcohol syndrome, and gonorrhea as four preventable diseases that the medical community could eliminate in 2017.
Although global measles infection rates have been dropping overall in recent years, developed countries have shown “a worrisome harbinger — measles outbreaks are occurring where they are least expected,” according to an NIH article.
It attributes the bumps to both people who refuse vaccinations as well as failed vaccinations. Of those two problems, the former can be solved: “Failure to vaccinate is a serious socio-cultural issue, and significantly hampers public health goals,” the article says. “Measles immunization rates, particularly in certain areas of the U.S. and western Europe, have plateaued or decreased and experts suspect this is a result of the now-debunked notion that measles vaccine caused autism — a false claim that adversely influenced … vaccination choices among a generation of parents.”
