[Opinion] Time To Stop The “Measles Game”

Measles, a disease rarely found in advanced countries, has hit Japan.

Since an outbreak that took place in Tokyo this year, the disease is spreading toward nearby regions such as Saitama Prefecture. After the number of carriers attending elementary and secondary schools went over 250, five schools had been temporarily shut down. The number of college students infected is known to be even bigger. Seven to eight universities, including Waseda University, have been temporarily closed, damaging Japan’s reputation in terms of advancement.

Measles is an illness that has largely been exterminated from advanced countries. The epidemic this time, however, has to do with the vaccination rate in Japan. In 1978, the policy change lifted the duty on its citizens to obligatorily take measles vaccines. For this reason, about 10% of Japanese in their 10s or 20s have not been inoculated yet. Moreover, ever since an article was published in the British medical journal The Lancet that MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccines could cause autism, the vaccination rate has decreased even more. The authors of the thesis admitted errors six years later, however, and the paper was cancelled.

When an infectious disease such as measles breaks out in a society, a complicated sort of game regarding the vaccination rate begins to take place. Most parents prefer not to have their children inoculated first, since they are worried about the side-effects or the shock risks of the injection. However, if you want to protect your child without the vaccine, all of the other children of a similar age have to be immune. In essence, no children can be protected unless all parents are determined to give their own children injections first.

This mechanism seems to be taking hold in Korea as well. Since April this year, 40 have been found to be infected, a number way higher than the total number of sufferers throughout last year, 25. This is probably related to the drop in the domestic vaccination rate after an accident a few years ago in which a number of infants died in a group after taking MMR injections. If this trend continues, Korea won’t be able to keep the number of measles patients below one per million of its population any longer, and will lose its status as a state that has eliminated measles. It isn’t too late yet, though. A vaccine works until after 72 hours from your contact with a carrier, so it is time for parents to step forward and stop selfishly waiting for all others to take the shots.

Chung Sung-he, Editorial Writer, shchung@donga.com