Need any more proof that Mississippi did the right thing by being strict on requiring childhood vaccinations?
It got it last month when a traveler from Tennessee with measles visited Hattiesburg and ate at a few restaurants there. Despite the likelihood that he exposed dozens of people to the highly contagious disease during his time in Mississippi, health officials say that they couldn’t find a single person who caught it.
How come?
Most likely because all the people the infected traveler came across had been immunized against measles, since Mississippi has a vaccination rate of 99 percent, the highest in the nation.
In order for a disease to reach epidemic proportions, it has to be able to spread. It doesn’t spread where it can’t find susceptible hosts.
Mississippi may be the Hospitality State, but it’s not hospitable to measles. Thank goodness.
