The World Health Organisation has ranked vaccine hesitancy – growing resistance to widely available lifesaving vaccines – as one of the top 10 health threats in the world for 2019. One of the worst measles outbreaks in recent times is underway in New York, and it’s not surprising.

CDC stats show that the number of unvaccinated children in the USA has quadrupled since 2001. The consequences of this are perilous: a surge in outbreaks of measles, mumps, pertussis and other diseases; an increase in influenza deaths; and dismal rates of HPV vaccination, which doctors say could effectively wipe out cervical cancer if it were better utilised.

While the stats are American there’s been a worrying surge in ‘Anti-vaxxers’ in South Africa too.

Read the full opinion piece in the New York Times.