This is an amazing accomplishment. PAHOs campaign to eliminate measles from the Americas by the year 2000 has succeeded in cutting cases from some 250,000 in 1990 to this low figure of 162 cases this year. Measles cases in the Americas had reached a low point in 1996, when only 2,109 laboratory-confirmed cases were reported. But measles virus, probably imported from Europe caused outbreaks in Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia last year, resulting in some 10,000 cases. Still, this number is only 4 percent of the measles cases reported at the start of the decade.
Infectious diseases are much more than a health issue.
They are a social problem with tremendous consequences for the well being of the individual and the world in which we live. They are a common threat that has been ignored, at great cost, for too long, and we must build global ways to confront them. The international community can help countries most at risk to help themselves. By helping each other, nations protect the world and protect themselves. Unfortunately, many countries have failed to invest adequately in the control of common infectious diseases.