Measles: Historical Highlights

Though measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. decades ago, outbreaks do still happen here, and in other places it’s much more common. Before vaccines were widely available, it killed an estimated 2.6 million people worldwide each year.

Research:

• "Measles cases rising alarmingly across Europe: WHO." IANS, 24 Jan. 2024, p. NA. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A780229341/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=624cac48. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.
• "The Medical Influence of Rhazes." Science and Its Times, edited by Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer, vol. 2, Gale, 2001. Gale In Context: World History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CV2643450171/WHIC?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-WHIC&xid=5ed3d18a. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.
• Associated Press. “Measles deaths worldwide jumped 40% last year, health agencies say.” 11/16/2023. https://apnews.com/article/measles-epidemic-children-who-cdc-bb62da7Measles%20deaths%20worldwide%20jumped%2040%%20last%20year,%20health%20agencies%20say
• Berche, Patrick. “History of measles.” La Presse Médicale. Volume 51, Issue 3, September 2022. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0755498222000422
• Carson-DeWitt, Rosalyn, MD, et al. "Measles." The Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health, edited by Brigham Narins, 2nd ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2020, pp. 675-680. Gale In Context: Environmental Studies, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX7947900178/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=5cb0c749. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.
• Centers for Disease Control. “Measles History.” https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/history.html
• Conis E. Measles and the Modern History of Vaccination. Public Health Reports. 2019;134(2):118-125. doi:10.1177/0033354919826558
• Düx A, Lequime S, Patrono LV, Vrancken B, Boral S, Gogarten JF, Hilbig A, Horst D, Merkel K, Prepoint B, Santibanez S, Schlotterbeck J, Suchard MA, Ulrich M, Widulin N, Mankertz A, Leendertz FH, Harper K, Schnalke T, Lemey P, Calvignac-Spencer S. Measles virus and rinderpest virus divergence dated to the sixth century BCE. Science. 2020 Jun 19;368(6497):1367-1370. doi: 10.1126/science.aba9411. PMID: 32554594; PMCID: PMC7713999.
• Home, Francis. “Medical facts and experiments.” London, 1759. https://archive.org/details/b30785558/
• Manley, Jennifer. “Measles and Ancient Plagues: A Note on New Scientific Evidence.” Classical World, Volume 107, Number 3, Spring 2014, pp. 393-397. https://doi.org/10.1353/clw.2014.0001
• Panum, Peter Ludwig. “Observations made during the epidemic of measles on the Faroe Islands in the year 1846.” Gerstein - University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/observationsmade00panuuoft
• Papania MJ, Wallace GS, Rota PA, et al. Elimination of Endemic Measles, Rubella, and Congenital Rubella Syndrome From the Western Hemisphere: The US Experience. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168(2):148–155. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.4342
• Patel, Minal K. et al. “Progress Toward Regional Measles Elimination — Worldwide, 2000–2019.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, November 13, 2020, Vol. 69, No. 45 (November 13, 2020). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26967781
• Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā. “A treatise on the small-pox and measles.” Translated by William Alexander Greenhill. 1848. https://archive.org/details/39002086344042.med.yale.edu/mode/1up
• Sydenham, Thomas. “The works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D.” London, 1848. https://archive.org/details/b33098682_0002
• The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. “Measles.” History of Vaccines. https://historyofvaccines.org/history/measles/timeline
• West, Katherine. "THE RETURN OF MEASLES: With modern vaccine skepticism, the once-eliminated disease is surging in the U.S." EMS World, vol. 48, no. 6, June 2019, pp. 44+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A711878059/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=8d0bb2cb. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.

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