Achi news desk-
With measles cases on the rise across the country, a Brock University immunologist says the highly contagious virus could be just the start of another vaccine-preventable illness making a comeback.
“Unfortunately, I think the burden here is just measles,” says associate professor of immunology and Director of the Inflammation and Immunity Laboratory Adam MacNeil, whose research examines how immunity interacts with viruses, allergens and people’s life experiences. “Measles is the most contagious and will be the first of its kind to make its presence known. In the coming years, we may see the emergence of other vaccine-preventable diseases that were essentially eradicated from our communities,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Although measles spreads quickly, it is easily prevented with two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, usually administered in childhood. Unlike the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which evolved throughout the pandemic and required updated vaccine formulas, the measles virus has not changed, and its neither does a vaccine, says MacNeil.
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“We know a lot about measles – how it works, how it’s transmitted. We even know that a vaccination rate of 95 percent is needed to prevent it from spreading throughout the community,” he said. “What has changed is the social context. After several years of living through a pandemic, talking extensively about vaccination in a highly politicized environment, there is some understandable fatigue around the subject. “
Disrupted and missed medical appointments combined with an excess of misinformation and misinformation have led to a decrease in the number of children who are up to date with their childhood vaccination schedule. MacNeil says that despite the 98 percent vaccination effectiveness rate of measles vaccinations, there has been an increase in vaccine hesitancy in recent years, with some people focusing on the extremely rare adverse risks of vaccination or making decisions on basis of ideological beliefs instead of scientific bases.
“This is a safe and effective vaccine,” he said. “The risk of an adverse outcome is so extremely rare compared to the likelihood of exposure to the pathogen, especially now as we experience more measles outbreaks across the country.”
Other people will reduce the effects of catching measles.
“Some people might insist that measles is no big deal, but measles can cause quite a number of problems, including immune amnesia, which can compromise the quality of your immune response to other pathogens,” he said. “It can lead to more serious infections down the road.”
One of the main issues related to public perception of vaccination is that people don’t realize when they have been protected from disease, says MacNeil. Although vaccines are usually given to healthy people, therapies such as antibiotics are given to treat bacterial infection when people are ill. Unhealthy people can see and feel themselves getting better and are grateful for it, while a vaccinated person who comes into contact with a virus does not notice their body’s adaptive response to it. He offers the example of a healthy, vaccinated person unknowingly inhaling airborne measles virus while sitting in a restaurant across the room from someone who does not yet know they are sick, but who exhaling the virus into the air.
“They don’t realize the full-scale war their immune system is launching to fight the viral invader, saving them from any of its consequences,” he said. “Credits to vaccinate are better valued at a community level, less individually.”
If not for themselves, MacNeil recommends that people get vaccinated to help stop the spread of the disease and to protect people who are immunized and those most vulnerable, such as children who are too young to get the first dose of the MMR vaccine.
“There is an altruism about vaccination,” he said. “We should look after our neighbors and do what we can to help keep our community healthy and thriving.”
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