Planning a summertime slip abroad ? Between jab out your passport and reservation hotels , find some time to count up your medical records . If you ’re old than 28 year old , you may need a rubeola inoculation — even if you were inoculated as a child .
As Slate explains , prior to 1989 , the Centers for Disease Control only recommended that children receive one dose of the rubeola , epidemic parotitis , and rubella ( MMR ) vaccinum . But since measles outbreaks were still far from being a matter of the past , wellness officialsrevised the guidelinesto recommend two back breaker . They also recommended that travelers going afield receive a measles booster rocket shoot if they had just received one MMR inoculation and had never experienced a full - blown pillowcase of the disease .
Travelers who were born before 1957 can ignore this advice , as they were belike exposed to a prior measles epidemic and are thereby resistant . But if you were born between then and 1989 , contain with your doctor ( or dig up your medical records ) to see you ’re to the full cover . If not , get the shot .
Thanks to the two - dose measles vaccine and a racy vaccination program , the Americas were declared rubeola - free in 2000 . The disease is still prevalent in other state around the world : Measles hassurgedacross Europe in recent month , as many hoi polloi there have n’t pick up the second dose of the two - dose measles vaccine . It ’s alsocommon , and even pernicious , in develop countries , include parts of Africa and Asia .
Today , measles is comparatively rare in the U.S. , but imported cases do pop up . Typically , they occur because someone who was either unvaccinated or under - vaccinatedtraveled abroadand contracted the disease , then brought it home and carry it to others who had n’t been immunized .
This raises the interrogation : Why are Americans still going abroad without bring a measles booster shoot ? Asa novel studypublished in theAnnals of Internal Medicineshows , many health - witting traveler who are n’t 100 pct rubeola - immune reject the shot because they ’re not distressed about contracting the disease . But judging by the recent rubeola billow in Europe — not to mentiona novel measles outbreak in Minnesotathat ’s connect to anti - vaccination military campaign — they should be .
[ h / tSlate ]
