The influence of antivaccination movements on the re-emergence of measles

Abstract

Measles is a contagious disease, preventable by vaccination, of great importance for public health and its impact on the morbidity and mortality of the population; particularly in America where there continue to be cases in unvaccinated persons, after having been declared in 2002 by the WHO as a region free of this disease. To examine the epidemiological panorama of measles and the influence that anti-vaccinal movements have had on the elimination of the virus, through a bibliographic review to specify why this is a re-emerging disease. A systematic review was made in the SciELO database, Redalyc, EBSCO, PubMed. The incorporation of the vaccine for measles reduced the morbidity and mortality caused by this disease, Yet factors such as antivaccine movements have always contribututed to cases in regions where the disease was considered eradicated. Antivaccination movement are associations of people who oppose vaccination for different reasons, which represent one of the factors that prevent diseases such as measles from being eradicated from the population.