KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the number of measles cases increase, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the U.S. will hit a new record of measles cases this year.
Since Jan. 1, there have been a total of 626 cases in 22 states, including Missouri.
A CDC spokesman said Tuesday that the agency is expecting the number of cases in 2019 to exceed 2014, when there were 667 cases.
"It was nearly eradicated around here and people and children were not developing these diseases and problems. Only now, especially with the anti-vaccine movement, has it become a problem," said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease physician with the University of Kansas Health System.
According to the CDC, the two-dose MMR vaccine is 97 percent effective against measles.
However, people vaccinated between 1963 and 1967 might want to check their medical records. There could be a chance the vaccine back then was ineffective.
"They were using two different vaccines. A live and a kill vaccine, and it just seems like a kill vaccine didn't have as much immunodeficiency or didn't give as much protection and long-lasting protection as the live vaccine did," Hawkinson said.
The best thing to do if you are unsure what type of vaccine you received is to check with your health care provider. According to Hawkinson, a simple blood test can reveal if you have immunity to measles or not.
