{"id":7804,"date":"2025-08-26T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7804"},"modified":"2025-08-26T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:30:00","slug":"got-measles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7804","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Got Measles?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published:<\/strong> 2025-08-26T18:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n

As a VA pharmacist for more than 20 years, I believe it\u2019s my duty to educate Veterans and their families on important health topics, especially those that are newly emerging, rarely discussed, or, in this case, making an unwelcome comeback. (We may like comebacks in sports, but not in medicine.)<\/p>\n

Before the measles vaccine became available in the United States in 1963, the U.S. saw nearly 50,000 hospitalizations and 400\u2013500 deaths per year from the disease. In 2000, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S., thanks to widespread vaccination. Unfortunately, declining vaccination rates have reversed this progress.<\/p>\n

Measles is airborne and extremely contagious. An infected person can spread the virus from four days before to four days after the signature rash appears. If one person has measles, 9 out of 10 people around them will become infected if they are not vaccinated. The virus can even survive in the air or on surfaces for up to two hours.<\/p>\n

What Veterans should know<\/h2>\n