Marschall Runge, MD PhD, Shares Thoughts on the Trajectory of Measles in the US
Measles, declared eradicated in the US 25years ago, has infected 900 Americans and is responsible for 3 deaths of children younger than age 5. How did we get here?
The most recent report from the CDC says that there have been 848 confirmed cases of measles across 30 jurisdictions in the US and approximately one-third have been in children younger than 5 years old. Three school-aged children have died from a disease that was declared eradicated in the US in 2020. How did we get here?
It's a complicated issue, Marschall Runge, MD, PhD, told Patient Care in a recent interview. Runge, who is Dean of the University of Michigan Medical School and passionate about education of primary care clinicians, points to the well recognized contributors to declining vaccination rates in the US that include most recently misinformation promulgated widely on social media and particularly during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. But vaccine hesitancy isn't new. Running beneath the contemporary influences, Runge said, is a slow but persistent erosion in trust and confidence in the American medical system and the way health care is delivered in this country.
He elaborates in the video above on his thoughts.
