http://news.yahoo.com/warns-measles-spread-europe-132902661.html
Measles, a disease that many in the developed world are vaccinated for at birth, has made a return across Europe and Africa. While the quick spread of measles is alarming, it's not even the most disturbing thing. 90% of the cases of measles in Europe are people who haven't been vaccinated for it, or did not receive follow up boosters for it. If we can't even vaccinate and immunize people in well-developed countries, like France, how can we hope to vaccinate almost everyone in developing and undeveloped countries? The MDG to reduce childhood mortality relies strongly on the use of vaccinations to eradicate communicable, but preventable diseases.
To compound the difficulties of even getting one vaccine to a large majority of the world population, the measles vaccine requires two doses. This makes it very hard to make sure everyone who gets the first vaccine, also gets the second. This outbreak of measles has made it very clear that the road to achieve all the MDGs will be a very long, obstacle-ridden route. If the most powerful countries in the world with the supposedly highest standards of living cannot ward off preventable diseases, how can we expect to help un-industrialized countries lacking proper infrastructures to get such basic healthcare?
While we still must continue progress in developing countries to reach the MDGs, we also now need to focus on the MDGs in our own home countries. Healthcare and healthcare services have fallen in importance to our governments, and as such, has fallen out of the public eye. Unless a huge national or international scare occurs, we often don't hear about the behind-the-scenes work, or lack thereof, in health policy.
