Medical research and scientific advances have virtually eradicated many diseases through vaccines. There is more accessibility to vaccines than ever before. However, preventable diseases are increasing, especially in the US.
Why? Because parents have the luxury of saying no to vaccines and many base their choices on pop culture and very little real knowledge. The map below shows how anti-vaccination misinformation has influenced diseases throughout the world. The Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations created this map to show public perception and reality.
The brown regions indicate new outbreaks of measles; green is whooping cough; orange is polio; purple is rubella and the red regions are the places in the world vaccine workers have been physically attacked. “This map demonstrates that the resurgence of polio in Pakistan is strongly correlated with the increase of attacks on vaccinators and health-care workers there,” says Laurie Garrett, CFR Senior Fellow for Global Health, who produced the map.
What else does this map tell us?
- Africa continues to have the largest outbreaks of diseases that are vaccine-preventable, largely due to supply-chain difficulties and weak health systems
- Outbreaks of whooping cough and measles are on the rise in the United States and the United Kingdom
- Wealthier countries see higher incidences of whooping cough and measles, while lower-income countries experience a range of infectious disease outbreaks and a notable resurgence of polio.
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