Childhood diseases return as parents refuse vaccines

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Landon Lewis, 4, was living in a Minneapolis homeless shelter when he fell ill, first with a fever of 104 degrees, then with a red rash on his forehead.

It took two visits to a doctor to diagnose a disease clinic staff hadn't seen in years: measles.

The rash spread into his mouth and throat, so swallowing was torture. He began vomiting and developed a cough that nearly choked him. He was rushed to the emergency room and hospitalized for five days.

"Seeing a child in that predicament really hurt," says his mother, Katrina Lewis, 27. "He can't eat, he can't sleep, he's bad all around, and you can't do anything about it."

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Landon is one of at least 152 cases of measles diagnosed in the USA so far this year — twice the number seen in a typical year and the biggest outbreak in 15 years, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half of patients have had to be hospitalized.

For the doctors and nurses caring for patients like Landon, the return of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles — a viral illness that once killed 3,000 to 5,000 Americans a year — is both frightening and all too predictable.

Measles can be like a canary in a coal mine," says the CDC's Gregory Wallace. "If there are any issues with vaccine coverage, it can first be apparent with measles."

In the past three years, doctors also have seen outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases, such as mumps, whooping cough and a life-threatening bacterial infection called Hib. All can be deadly.

Although overall vaccine coverage remains high, 40% of parents say they have deliberately skipped or delayed a shot for their children.

In some ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success. Today's parents have never seen the diseases that terrified their grandparents, says Paul Offit, chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "We've not only eliminated these diseases; we've eliminated the memory of these diseases," Offit says.

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