Comment: Back to basics: the miracle and tragedy of measles vaccine

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The Lancet  
Apr 27, 2013  Volume 381 Number 9876  p1431 – 1510  e10 – 11
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

Comment
Back to basics: the miracle and tragedy of measles vaccine
Zsuzsanna Jakab, David M Salisbury
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2813%2960908-3/fulltext

Preview
As we herald progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and strive to meet them, we have an approaching public health target that is sometimes forgotten. The global community has resolved to reduce measles deaths by 95% by 2015, and five of the six WHO regions plan to eliminate measles within this decade.1 The current outbreak of measles in Swansea, UK, is tragic in many ways, with hundreds of ill children, health staff stretched and working overtime to care for patients and trace contacts, the need for emergency vaccination clinics, and the spectre of death from measles.