Claim: Measles outbreak kills more than 1,200 in Madagascar.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Eradication of infectious diseases
text: maintaining indefinite control was commissioned in 2009 by the WHO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2013, measles deaths globally were down to 145,700. As of mid-2013, measles elimination in many areas is stalling. "This year, measles and rubella outbreaks are occurring in many areas of the world where people have no immunity to these viruses. The reasons people are unvaccinated range from lack of access to vaccines in areas of insecurity, to poor performing health systems, to vaccine refusals. We need to address each of these challenges if we’re going to meet global measles and rubella elimination

title: Eradication of infectious diseases
text: had one major outbreak of measles originating from an amusement park in California of a variant of the virus circulating in the Philippines in 2014. From this there have been 113 individual measles cases and one death (out of the total of 189 cases in the U.S. in 2015). The WHO region of the Americas declared on 27 September 2016 it had eliminated measles. The last confirmed endemic case of measles in the Americas was in Brazil in July 2015. May 2017 saw a return of measles to the US after an outbreak in Minnesota among unvaccinated children. The WHO

title: Measles
text: population in the 1850s. In 1875, measles killed over 40,000 Fijians, approximately one-third of the population. In the 19th century, the disease killed 50% of the Andamanese population. Seven to eight million children are thought to have died from measles each year before the vaccine was introduced. In 1954, the virus causing the disease was isolated from a 13-year-old boy from the United States, David Edmonston, and adapted and propagated on chick embryo tissue culture. To date, 21 strains of the measles virus have been identified. While at Merck, Maurice Hilleman developed the first successful vaccine. Licensed vaccines to prevent

title: Pandemic
text: Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, there were an estimated 3–4 million cases in the U.S. each year. Measles killed around 200 million people worldwide over the last 150 years. In 2000 alone, measles killed some 777,000 worldwide out of 40 million cases globally. Measles is an endemic disease, meaning that it has been continually present in a community, and many people develop resistance. In populations that have not been exposed to measles, exposure to a new disease can be devastating. In 1529, a measles outbreak in Cuba killed two-thirds of the natives who had previously survived smallpox. The

title: Measles
text: 142 measles-related fatalities. In the Naga Self-Administered Zone in a remote northern region of Myanmar, at least 40 children died during a measles outbreak in August 2016 that was probably caused by lack of vaccination in an area of poor health infrastructure. Estimates based on modern molecular biology place the emergence of measles as a human disease sometime after 500 AD (the former speculation that the Antonine Plague of 165–180 AD was caused by measles is now discounted). The first systematic description of measles, and its distinction from smallpox and chickenpox, is credited to the Persian physician Rhazes (860–932), who

title: Measles
text: birth of children. In communities which generate insufficient new hosts the disease will die out. This concept was first recognized in measles by Bartlett in 1957, who referred to the minimum number supporting measles as the critical community size (CCS). Analysis of outbreaks in island communities suggested that the CCS for measles is around 250,000. To achieve herd immunity, more than 95% of the community must be vaccinated due to the ease with which measles is transmitted from person to person. The disease was eliminated from the Americas in 2016. In 2011, the WHO estimated that 158,000 deaths were caused

title: Measles
text: and medications to control the fever. Antibiotics may be used if a secondary bacterial infection such as bacterial pneumonia occurs. Vitamin A supplementation is also recommended in the developing world. Measles affects about 20 million people a year, primarily in the developing areas of Africa and Asia. No other vaccine-preventable disease causes as many deaths. In 1980, 2.6 million people died of it, and in 1990, 545,000 died; by 2014, global vaccination programs had reduced the number of deaths from measles to 73,000. The risk of death among those infected is usually 0.2%, but may be up to 10% in

title: Epidemiology of measles
text: public that their program was indeed safe. Speculation arose as to whether or not new needles were being used. By mid-October, there were at least 940 recorded cases, and four deaths. In early 2010, there was a serious outbreak of measles in the Philippines with 742 cases, leaving four unvaccinated children dead in the capital city of Manila. As of May 2011, over 17,000 cases of measles have so far been reported from France between January 2008 and April 2011, including 2 deaths in 2010 and 6 deaths in 2011. Over 7,500 of these cases fell in the first three

title: Melanie's Marvelous Measles
text: eradicated the disease from this country by 2000, 'hundreds of thousands of kids got measles every year'... The CDC claims that, if exposed, 90% of unvaccinated people who come in contact with an infected person will get the disease. 'And for 1 out of every 1,000 children who contract it, the disease is fatal.'" "The World Health Organization says measles is 'one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available'. There are about 140,000 deaths a year, mostly in poor countries. In Australia measles deaths are now rare because the

title: Epidemiology of measles
text: measles at the time of death and died from giant cell pneumonia caused by the disease. There have been growing concerns that the epidemic could spread to London and infect many more people due to poor MMR uptake, prompting the Department of Health to set up a mass vaccination campaign targeted at one million school children throughout England. In late 2013, it was reported in the Philippines that 6,497 measles cases occurred which resulted in 23 deaths. In 2014 many unvaccinated US citizens visiting the Philippines, and other countries, contracted measles, resulting in 288 cases being recorded in the United

title: Measles & Rubella Initiative
text: outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2001, the Measles Initiative has mobilized more than $200 million and supported more than 40 African countries and three Asian countries in implementing high-quality measles vaccination campaigns. As a result, global measles deaths have dropped by 48% from 871,000 in 1999 to an estimated 454,000 in 2004 thanks to improvements in routine and supplementary immunization activities. The largest reduction occurred in Africa, the region with the highest burden of the disease, where estimated measles cases and deaths dropped by 60%. The mechanism for the Initiative is an American Red Cross-led partnership with operational support to

title: Epidemiology of measles
text: to 164,000 globally, with 77% of the remaining measles deaths in 2008 occurring within the Southeast Asian region. In 2006–07 there were 12,132 cases in 32 European countries: 85% occurred in five countries: Germany, Italy, Romania, Switzerland and the UK. 80% occurred in children and there were 7 deaths. Five out of six WHO regions have set goals to eliminate measles, and at the 63rd World Health Assembly in May 2010, delegates agreed a global target of a 95% reduction in measles mortality by 2015 from the level seen in 2000, as well as to move towards eventual eradication. However,

title: Epidemiology of measles
text: six were French, and 7,288 hospitalizations. In February 2014, 26 cases in Barcelona, Spain. Ukraine has had a multiple large outbreaks of measles. In 2001-2002, there were around 25,000 cases and 14 deaths reported. In 2006 with 44,534 reported cases with at least 2 deaths. 13,517 cases were reported in 2012. Germany has faced repeated outbreaks in the 21st century. 6,037 cases were reported in 2001 with at least two deaths. More than 1,500 cases were reported in 2006. 1,600 cases were reported in an outbreak in 2013. An outbreak in 2015 had more than 1,700 cases had been reported

title: Epidemiology of measles
text: cases and four deaths, representing almost six-times the number of cases in 2016. The number of cases for 2013 through 2016 were 2211, 1674, 251 and 844. Beginning in April 2009 there was a large outbreak of measles in Bulgaria, with 23,791 cases, including 24 deaths, reported up to 28 July 2010. From Bulgaria, the strain was carried to Germany, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, and other European countries. Between January 2008 and May 2012, 22,000 measles cases were reported in France. 5,000 patients were hospitalised including 1,023 with severe pneumonia, 27 with encephalitis and/or myelitis, and 10 died. An awareness campaign

title: Epidemiology of measles
text: 2009 there was a large outbreak of measles in Bulgaria, with over 24,000 cases including 24 deaths. From Bulgaria, the strain was carried to Germany, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, and other European countries. Beginning in September 2009, Johannesburg, South Africa reported about 48 cases of measles. Soon after the outbreak, the government ordered all children to be vaccinated. Vaccination programs were then initiated in all schools, and parents of young children were advised to have them vaccinated. Many people were not willing to have the vaccination done, as it was believed to be unsafe and ineffective. The Health Department assured the

title: Measles
text: cities. Measles is an endemic disease, meaning it has been continually present in a community, and many people develop resistance. In populations not exposed to measles, exposure to the new disease can be devastating. In 1529, a measles outbreak in Cuba killed two-thirds of those natives who had previously survived smallpox. Two years later, measles was responsible for the deaths of half the population of Honduras, and it had ravaged Mexico, Central America, and the Inca civilization. Between roughly 1855 and 2005, measles has been estimated to have killed about 200 million people worldwide. Measles killed 20 percent of Hawaii's

title: Epidemiology of measles
text: Approximately 1000 cases of the disease were reported in Israel between August 2007 and May 2008 (in sharp contrast to just some dozen cases the year before). Many children in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities were affected due to low vaccination coverage. In 2007, a large measles outbreak in Japan caused a number of universities and other institutions to close in an attempt to contain the disease. In 2014 the Philippines experienced a large ongoing measles outbreak. According to the World Health Organization there were 57,564 suspected cases of measles, including 21,403 confirmed cases, 110 measles deaths, were reported in the Philippines

title: Eradication of infectious diseases
text: goals," said Dr. Myrna Charles of the American Red Cross, as reported in a post in the Measles and Rubella Initiative's blog. A look at the WHO's epidemiological graph of measles over time from 2008-2013 show that, with little more of two years to go to 2015, measles cases in 2013 are moving in the wrong direction, with more cases this year than at the same point in 2012 or 2011. During 2014 there were 23 outbreaks of measles in the United States and over 600 individual cases, which is the highest seen in decades. In 2015 the US has

title: Measles
text: by measles. This is down from 630,000 deaths in 1990. As of 2013, measles remains the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths in the world. In developed countries, death occurs in one to two cases out of every 1,000 (0.1–0.2%). In populations with high levels of malnutrition and a lack of adequate healthcare, mortality can be as high as 10%. In cases with complications, the rate may rise to 20–30%. In 2012, the number of deaths due to measles was 78% lower than in 2000 due to increased rates of immunization among UN member states. Even in countries where vaccination has

title: Epidemiology of measles
text: no specific global target date for eradication has yet been agreed to as of May 2010. On January 22, 2014, the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization declared and certified Colombia free of the measles while becoming the first Latin American country to abolish the infection within its borders. In Vietnam, in the measles epidemic in the beginning of 2014, as of April 19 there were 8,500 measles cases and 114 fatalities, and as of May 30 there were 21,639 measles cases and 142 fatalities. In 2007, a large outbreak in Japan caused a number of universities