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outbreak response

Evidence on persuading hesitant parents is consistent and inconvenient: correcting misinformation directly is largely ineffective and occasionally counterproductive, while a clear recommendation from a trusted clinician who listens first remains the most reliable intervention. That is labour-intensive and does not scale through public messaging campaigns, which is why the successful responses have been local, personal and slow — the opposite of what an outbreak timeline allows.

• Roughly one in five unvaccinated children who contract measles requires hospitalisation.
• Pneumonia is the most common cause of measles death in young children.
• Encephalitis occurs in approximately one case per thousand and can leave permanent neurological damage.
• Measles causes prolonged suppression of immune memory, leaving survivors more vulnerable to other infections for years afterwards.