Preaching the benefits of vaccination in an increasingly skeptical world

So far this calendar year, 1,243 people scattered around 31 states had confirmed measles, the highest number of measles cases reported in the U.S. since 1992. Given the serious complications that can result from a bout with measles - including hospitalization, pneumonia and encephalitis - there's a long line of folks waiting to get vaccines, including influenza vaccine. 

Right? 

Wrong. 

Fewer than half of adults in the U.S. get an annual flu shot, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends it for anyone aged 6 months or older "as the first and most important step" in protecting against getting sick.

A panel of public health heavyweights will discuss that disconnect in a plenary session titled "All about vaccines: The individual, the community, the world," the closing session for IDWeek2019, an annual gathering of infectious disease experts held this year from Oct. 2 to Oct. 6 in Washington. Among the speakers, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Penny M. Heaton, M.D., CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute; and Peter Jay Hoetz, M.D., Ph.D. founding dean of Baylor College of Medicine.

"The reemergence of these neglected diseases is unfortunate, but unless people have firsthand experience with someone who has suffered a serious complication of a vaccine-preventable disease, they don't appreciate how important vaccines are," says Roberta L. DeBiasi, M.D., MS, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children's National Hospital and IDWeek 2019 co-chair. 

"In the not-so-distant past, these vaccine-preventable illnesses used to circulate broadly - and they still do now around the world in countries where people don't have access to vaccines. In countries like the U.S., vaccines are successful at keeping the rate of preventable illnesses low when the majority of people are vaccinated. But when people stop vaccinating, these diseases will recur and have done so with increasing frequency," Dr. DeBiasi adds.