GETTING vaccinated may be the last thing on your mind when heading off on vacation, but it’s important — whether you are traveling to an exotic destination or not.
Case in point: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory last month pointing out that the United States is currently experiencing the highest number of measles cases since 1996, many of which were acquired overseas. As of June 17, 156 confirmed cases of measles had been reported to the center this year; 136 of them involved unvaccinated Americans who had recently traveled abroad, unvaccinated visitors to the United States and people who didn’t travel but may have caught the disease from those who did.
The advisory, which encourages travelers planning trips abroad to make sure they have had the M.M.R. (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine before they leave, illustrates that it isn’t just far-flung places that are a source of concern — outbreaks are occurring in places like France, Britain, Spain and Switzerland. “Those of us who run travel clinics are very used to seeing people going to developing countries or tropical countries” getting the relevant shots, said Dr. David O. Freedman, a board member at the International Society of Travel Medicine and a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “But nobody thinks about it when they go to Europe.”
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PRACTICAL TRAVELER
Planning a Vac(cin)ation
By MICHELLE HIGGINS
Published: July 27, 2011
A version of this article appeared in print on July 31, 2011, on page TR3 of the New York edition with the headline: Planning a Vac(cin)ation.