Despite Advances, Measles Eradication Still Far Off

Jan. 19, 2007 — -- In what has been hailed as an historic victory for global health, directors of many of the world's largest health organizations announced Thursday that through an effort called the Measles Initiative, the death rate from measles declined by 60 percent between 1999 and 2005.

Now they have set a new goal -- to reduce measles deaths by 90 percent by 2010. And some have suggested that eliminating measles may be a possibility.

"We have an opportunity here to leave a lasting mark on the world through the eradication or elimination of diseases," said Kathy Bushkin, executive director of the United Nations Foundation in a press conference held Thursday. "We've already seen the eradication of smallpox, and we're close to eradicating polio."

But the total eradication of measles could be a different issue altogether. And some disease experts say such a goal may be difficult, or even impossible, to achieve.

One such expert is Dr. Samuel Katz, chairman emeritus of pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center. He said that through current means, the complete eradication of measles is "just not feasible."

"It is a little bit overly optimistic to talk about getting rid of measles entirely, and I think that we are whistling "Dixie" if we think we are going to get rid of measles in a few years," Katz said.

Dr. Pascal Imperato, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, is no stranger to the measles battle; he immunized African children himself in the 1960s and 1970s.

And he said that though eliminating the disease is technically possible, it is a very difficult goal to achieve.

"Our hope at that time was to control it, not to eradicate it, because we knew that we could not hope to eradicate it," Imperato said.

"I think eradication is possible. But whether it is probable or not is another question."

The good news is that it would technically be possible to completely eliminate measles using a tool that we already have.