Worse Psoriasis, Less Healthy Arteries, Study Finds

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The skin disorder psoriasis appears linked with artery inflammation, raising the odds for heart disease, a new study says.

“As the amount of psoriasis increases, the amount of blood vessel inflammation increases,” said senior investigator Dr. Nehal Mehta, a clinical investigator with the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

His team also found that even mild psoriasis may indicate an increased risk for heart attack and stroke.

Just one psoriasis skin patch, or plaque, “might be biologically active, causing low-grade inflammation and starting a cascade, speeding up their blood vessel disease,” Mehta said.

“People really should know that psoriasis is not just a cosmetic disease,” he added.

However, these study findings only show an association between psoriasis and blood vessel inflammation, not a direct cause-and-effect relationship, Mehta said. His team is now conducting a study to see if treating psoriasis lowers blood vessel inflammation.

Psoriasis is a chronic disease that affects about 3 percent of U.S. adults. It occurs when skin cells grow too quickly, causing thick, white or red patches of skin.

Blood vessel, or vascular, inflammation is most likely the direct result of psoriasis, not treatment, Mehta said.

Treating psoriasis may lower the risk for heart attack and stroke, he said.

Previous research has found that psoriasis may be linked with a greater risk of heart attack and stroke and heart disease-related death. This new study may be the first to examine if psoriasis severity affects inflammation in the blood vessels, Mehta said.

Inflammation can cause blood vessels, including arteries, to narrow, which limits blood flow, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Mehta advises people with psoriasis to lower their risk of heart disease by controlling traditional risk factors.

“Avoid smoking, try to maintain a healthy lifestyle, including moderate exercise and a balanced diet,” he said. “You should also have your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar checked. Try to do that, because psoriasis itself might be a risk factor.”

For the study, published online Oct. 8 in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, researchers compared 60 adults with psoriasis to 20 people without the condition. All participants were in their 40s on average and at low risk for heart disease.

Some had mild psoriasis — a few patches on less than 3 percent of their skin. Severe cases involved patches covering more than 10 percent of the skin.

Despite severity, PET scans revealed that all participants with psoriasis had increased levels of inflammation in their blood vessels, the researchers said.

The worst psoriasis was associated with a 41 percent increase in blood vessel inflammation, compared with participants without psoriasis. The relationship between psoriasis and increased blood vessel inflammation didn’t change much after accounting for other heart disease risk factors, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, weight and smoking, the study authors said.

Michael Siegel, director of research programs at the National Psoriasis Foundation, said patients should take psoriasis seriously and treat it appropriately.

“Even mild psoriasis carries a risk for heart problems,” he said. Although it is not yet proven that treating psoriasis reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke, there is enough evidence to suggest that patients should have their disease treated, Siegel said.

“There are systemic consequences to psoriasis and people with severe disease need to seek the most effective treatment possible,” he said.

More information

For more on psoriasis, visit the National Psoriasis Foundation.

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Scientists Get Closer to Genetics of Homosexuality in Men

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Scientists are reporting that they’ve linked the way genes in certain regions of the human genome work to influence sexual orientation in males.

The findings don’t explain how such variations in the workings of these genetic regions might affect sexuality in one or both genders. But the authors of the new study say they’ve been able to use this information to successfully predict the sexual orientation of male identical twins 70 percent of the time, compared to the 50 percent that would be expected by chance.

Twins have the same genes, so something else — such as the way genes operate — may explain those who don’t have the same sexual orientation, the authors suggested.

“Sexual orientation seems to be determined very early in life,” said study lead author Tuck Ngun, a postdoctoral researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California, Los Angeles. “Based on these findings, we can say that environmental factors might play a role in sexual orientation.”

But he doesn’t mean the social environment in which we grow up, such as how we’re treated by our parents.

“Instead, we are referring to differences that the twins could have experienced in the womb,” Ngun explained.

Several past studies have linked sexual orientation to specific genetic regions, “but what’s still a mystery is the specific genes that are involved,” Ngun said. “Sexual attraction is a fundamental drive across all species but it is something that is poorly understood on the genetic level, particularly in humans.”

In the new study, researchers sought to better understand the links between how genes work — not just the existence of certain genes or genetic variations — and sexual orientation.

The investigators looked at identical twins because they share the same DNA. However, genes are also affected by the environment each twin experiences, so they’re not clones of each other in terms of how their bodies work, according to the researchers.

The researchers began with information on 140,000 genetic regions and narrowed them down to five regions that appear to have the ability to predict — 70 percent of the time — whether an identical male twin is gay or straight based on how genes in those regions work or “express” themselves.

The researchers reached that level of accuracy by seeing if they could predict sexual orientation in 10 pairs of male gay twins and 37 male pairs in which one twin is gay and the other is straight, the study said.

“We weren’t expecting 100 percent since we are only looking at a small part of the overall picture,” Ngun said.

The genetic regions in question play various roles in the body, Ngun explained, including affecting sexual attraction.

Qazi Rahman, a senior lecturer in cognitive neuropsychology at King’s College London in the United Kingdom, who studies sexual orientation, praised the study. While it’s small, the study’s design is strong, he said.

Rahman added that the study “tells us something about possible environmental differences — albeit biological differences in the environment — which might explain the sexual orientation of men who share the same genome.”

Some people in the LGBT community have expressed concern about research into the biological roots of sexual orientation because they fear it could be used to target gays and even abort fetuses who seem likely to not be heterosexual. “I am gay, so these questions have a lot of resonance with me on a personal level,” study lead author Ngun said.

“I do think we have to tread carefully because the potential for abuse is there. Although I think it’s highly unlikely that the findings of this particular research study would lead to a genetic test, future research could ultimately lead to something like that,” he added.

Society is going to have to work together, Ngun suggested, “to ensure research on sexual orientation is not misused.”

The study is scheduled to be presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Baltimore. Research presented at meetings hasn’t yet undergone peer review, and is generally considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

For more about sexual orientation, visit the American Psychological Association.

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Bio-Oil Is Doing Something Beautiful For Burn Survivors

If you’ve ever set out to reduce the appearance of a scar or those pesky stretch marks, there’s a solid chance you’ve added Bio-Oil to your daily beauty routine (they are number one in that treatment category, after all). But the folks behind the product want to do more than boost the physical appearance of their consumers, they want to nourish the inside as well.

As this week marks Fire Prevention Week, Bio-Oil released their documentary featuring four incredible burn survivors who each share their personal, heartbreaking and inspiring stories. For every view the documentary receives, one dollar will go to The Phoenix Society, a national nonprofit supporting burn survivors. It takes a lot of guts to share such a traumatic part of your history, and all of the participants should be lauded for their bravery.

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself particularly moved by Duane S. Wright, a burn survivor who actually met his wife while they were volunteering at a children’s hospital working with pediatric burn victims.

Healing and compassion? Now that’s beautiful.

This article originally appeared on MIMIchatter.com.

MIMI Chatter is an endless stream of beauty content. We bring together the must-knows and the how-tos from your favorite sites, beauty influencers, our editors, and YOU.

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This Female Analyst Just Made Baseball History—So Why Are People Mad?

Photo: Getty Images

Jessica Mendoza made history Tuesday night as the first woman to ever commentate a Major League Baseball playoff game. With qualifications like being an Olympic gold medalist in softball and an all-American while at Stanford University, it’s no surprise she absolutely killed it, showing off her knowledge with details about how one hit resulted in a double, explaining how the dueling pitchers selected each pitch, and more.

But that didn’t stop people—including Mike Bell, a radio commentator in Atlanta—from ripping Mendoza apart on Twitter for simply being a woman calling a baseball game.

RELATED: Pippa Middleton Is Actually a Serious Athlete

While many of the tweets were tasteless, Bell, a professional communicator, had some of the worst comments of them all. First, he referenced a joke from “Anchorman,” when Ron Burgandy calls his co-anchor Veronica Cornerstone “Tits McGhee,” tweeting: “yes tell us Tits McGhee when you’re up there hitting the softball you see a lot of 95 mile an hour cutters?”

And when others called him out, he responded to all of them, complaining about the “PC Police” attacking him and calling people “stupid.”

The tweets have since been deleted, but as Bell should know, nothing ever truly disappears from the Internet. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has screenshots of each one.

On the bright side, Mendoza, 34, is still being recognized for her performance. John Wildhack, ESPN’s executive vice president for programming and production, was complementary about Mendoza’s commentary during the game.

RELATED: What 5 Amazing Athletes Eat for Breakfast

“You can expect that she has earned and will have a prominent role in our baseball coverage,” Wildhack told the New York Times. “Her knowledge of the game is comparable to any baseball expert out there, and her knowledge of hitting might be the best of any analyst out there.”

And Mendoza, for her part, is ignoring the nasty comments, noting that there’s no reason why a softball player wouldn’t understand baseball.

“My dad was a baseball coach, and then I switched to softball,” she explained to the Times. “Baseball was all I knew until I crossed over. It never seemed like a big deal. The sports are not exactly alike, but not different enough to where you can’t successfully understand each one.”

RELATED: Being a Teen Athlete Linked to Longer Life for Women, Study Finds

Meanwhile, Bell is off the air until Monday, and he read a pre-taped apology on air Wednesday afternoon, saying, “I didn’t get it. I get it now. There is no place for that kind of stuff on my show. I will be more mindful. I hope I can be a better talk show host and better person. This has been an eye-opening experience.”

Mendoza appeared on Good Morning America today, where she offered this response. “Yes, I am a female, but I want it to get to the point where, let’s think about what I am saying, what I am doing, and not so much the sex that I am. I want to get to a point when we hear a female voice on NBA, NFL, or just anything in men’s sports, and it is like, ‘Sweet. She’s doing a good job.’”

“I accept his apology,” she added. “I feel very confident…. I’m looking forward to the future.”

RELATED: Healthy Eats at 30 Major League Baseball Parks

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Bike Helmets Protect Against Severe Brain Injury, Study Says

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Wearing a bicycle helmet significantly reduces the risk of serious brain injury and death from a crash, a new study shows.

Researchers analyzed the medical records of more than 6,200 people who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a cycling crash. Of those patients, just over one-quarter were wearing helmets.

Compared to those without a helmet, patients with a helmet were 58 percent less likely to have severe brain injury. They were also 59 percent less likely to die, 61 percent less likely to require surgery to remove part of the skull to expose the brain, and 26 percent less likely to have facial fractures, the study found.

The University of Arizona study was scheduled for presentation Thursday at a meeting of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago. Until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, the data and conclusions should be considered preliminary.

“We know for a fact that helmets help you prevent head bleeds in case you get into a bicycle-related accident,” co-author Dr. Ansab Haider said in a college news release. “But the real question was, if you get into a bicycle-related accident and end up with a head bleed, does helmet use somehow protect you?”

The answer is yes, study lead author Dr. Bellal Joseph said in the news release. “When you hone in on that severe group of people who actually developed a brain injury, and then look at how they did, the helmet really made a difference,” Joseph said.

The researchers also found that the lowest rate of helmet use was among cyclists aged 10 to 20, but helmet use increased with each decade of age until 70, when the rate fell again. Females are more likely than males to wear helmets.

The findings show the importance of promoting helmet use, developing and enforcing stricter helmet use laws, and the creation of better helmets, the doctors said.

“That’s where future efforts need to focus in on — making helmets that really make a difference,” Joseph said. “Ultimately, the important message is patient care and how we can make our patients safer and more protected. We need to take this data and take it to the next level and move forward with policy and injury prevention, especially for the younger age groups.”

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about bicycle safety.

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Colonoscopy Findings Fade Quickly From Memory

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The longer it’s been since their last colonoscopy, the more likely patients are to forget important details about their procedure, a new study finds.

In the study, 200 people were asked to recall the date of their last colonoscopy and the findings. Their answers were compared to their health records. The patients’ last colonoscopies were either two months, one year, two years or four years prior to the study.

The percentage of patients who remembered the date of their last colonoscopy to within one month was 94 percent after two months, 42 percent after one year, 30 percent after two years and 28 percent after four years, according to the study presented this week at the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in Chicago.

The number of patients who knew whether precancerous growths called polyps were found was about 65 percent, 32 percent, 36 percent and 38 percent, respectively. The number of patients who knew the number of polyps found during their procedure was about 39 percent, 10 percent, 7 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

“Patients’ personal recollections of endoscopy results can be misleading,” said study author Dr. Amer Alame, a colorectal surgeon at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit.

In an ACS news release, he said it’s important for doctors to repeat important information to patients after a colonoscopy, including what was done, the results and recommendations for follow-up care. One helpful approach is to provide patients with a document to take home and keep in their files.

Another suggestion is to send the results directly to the patient’s primary care doctor.

Typically, doctors who perform colonoscopies “won’t send [results] until the primary care doctor requests it, but I know of centers that are being proactive about it and already doing this,” Alame said.

Findings presented at meetings are generally considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about colonoscopies.

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Surgery May Raise Survival With Advanced Melanoma: Study

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — New research suggests that for patients with melanoma that has spread to the abdomen, surgical removal of the tumor can extend survival.

The study was led by Dr. Gary Deutsch, now a surgical oncologist at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, N.Y. His team tracked outcomes for 1,600 patients, treated at some point between 1969 and 2014.

According to the study, nearly one in four patients had surgery to remove the mass from their abdomen. Patients who underwent the surgery lived more than twice as long as those who received drug treatment alone — 18 months versus seven months, on average, the researchers reported.

The study was to be presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in Chicago.

According to the researchers, in the past, a melanoma that had spread to the liver or another organ in the abdomen was considered incurable. In those cases, surgery was typically deemed to be useless.

As well, in recent years powerful new immune-based drugs have given doctors new pharmaceutical options in fighting advanced melanomas, the researchers noted.

So, with all these changes, would surgical removal of part of a cancerous organ make any difference to patient survival? The new findings suggest that it might, Deutsch said.

“We have been trying to gauge the role of surgical resection for metastatic melanoma since the development of [immune-based drugs],” he said in an ACS news release.

“Today, metastatic melanoma is [also] discovered earlier in a number of patients,” Deutsch added, “likely because of better imaging techniques, so surgeons may be able to intervene before it becomes futile.”

In the new study, surgery was performed alone, or in combination with drug treatment or radiofrequency ablation, a technique that uses heat to destroy cancer cells.

All of the patients in the study had potentially operable melanoma that had spread to the abdomen. The sole site of abdominal cancer was the liver in nearly 700 patients, the gastrointestinal tract in 336, adrenal glands in 138, spleen in 109, and pancreas in 38. Another 305 patients had multiple cancer sites in the abdomen.

Patients with melanoma that had spread to the gastrointestinal tract and had complete, curative surgery had the longest average survival, the study found, at more than two years.

Deutsch believes that surgery “can really make a difference in the patients with GI tract metastases. The operation can be performed laparoscopically, so it is minimally invasive.”

Two cancer surgeons said the findings are welcome news for patients.

“Since stage 4 cancer is not normally treated with surgery, I find it quite amazing that surgical treatment for stage 4 melanoma to the abdomen has such astonishing survival effects, with patients living nearly a year longer compared to patients not surgically treated,” said Dr. Todd Coven, a dermatologic surgeon at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

“Such a study advances hope for patients with stage 4 metastatic melanoma,” he said, because the disease otherwise carries “a highly lethal prognosis.”

Dr. Stephanie Bernik is chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital, also in New York City. She said that the study may have had what is known as “selection bias,” meaning that only those patients with less advanced disease were selected for surgeries in the first place.

“However, even with this bias, there is a suggestion that in carefully selected patients, surgery should be considered,” Bernik said.

Deutsch conducted the study while a surgical oncology fellow at John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif.

Experts note that findings presented at medical meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about melanoma.

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Low-Income HIV Patients May Be Doing Better on Obamacare

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Low-income HIV patients who enrolled in Obamacare may be faring better than they did on traditional state assistance, a new study suggests.

At least that’s the case in Virginia, where the study was done. Researchers found that people infected with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) who switched from the state’s drug-assistance program to an Obamacare insurance plan had greater odds of gaining better control of the disease.

Those who enrolled in a plan in 2014 were more likely to get their HIV “viral load” down to very low or undetectable levels in the blood, the study found.

“That’s the most exciting finding from this study,” said lead researcher Dr. Kathleen McManus, a fellow at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, in Charlottesville, Va.

“When patients achieve viral load suppression, they’re healthier and they’re less likely to pass the virus on to other people,” said McManus.

McManus is scheduled to present the study results Friday at Infectious Diseases Week, a meeting of infectious disease specialists in San Diego. Findings presented at meetings are generally viewed as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Virginia, like all other U.S. states, has an AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). The programs help low-income HIV patients who are either uninsured or “underinsured” afford the expensive drugs used to control the disease, the study authors said.

Traditionally, ADAP has paid for the medications, and patients generally received their medical care at federally funded clinics, according to the researchers.

But the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — also known as Obamacare — opened another option, McManus explained. ADAP programs can now sign patients up with an insurance plan, then pay for their premiums, deductibles and medication co-pays.

“There’ve been some concerns about how this large national policy change could affect patients,” McManus said.

This study offers reassurance, she said, and suggests that HIV patients could actually fare better on Obamacare.

And why would that be? It’s possible, McManus said, that people who shifted to an ACA health plan gained better access to medical care in general.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, agreed. “They may have received better care for other chronic disease, like diabetes, that commonly affect people with HIV,” said del Rio, who was not involved in the study.

Better overall health and well-being could, in turn, help people gain more control over their HIV.

Del Rio called the results “exciting,” but added that important questions remain: Is this happening in other states? And what will the longer-term effects — on both people’s health and health care spending — ultimately be?

“We need to look beyond the effects on viral load,” del Rio said.

It’s clear that “healthier patients are less expensive patients,” he noted. But the financial impact of moving ADAP patients to Obamacare health plans remains to be seen, del Rio said.

According to McManus, shifting HIV patients to Obamacare does open up resources to cover a larger number of patients. The traditional ADAP program often had wait-lists for medications and services, she said.

Moving patients to health plans could also be cost-effective for states, McManus and her colleagues suggested, because HIV drugs are so expensive.

The findings are based on a two-year study of nearly 4,000 Virginia ADAP patients who were eligible to move to an Obamacare health plan in 2014.

Overall, 47 percent made the switch, the study found. And, patients who made the switch increased their odds of achieving HIV viral suppression by 45 percent compared to patients who stayed with ADAP, the research revealed.

“Given what we found, it’s unfortunate that less than half of those patients enrolled in an ACA plan,” McManus said. One of the next steps, she added, will be to figure out what keeps people from enrolling.

This study offered some clues: Patients’ likelihood of enrolling varied according to the HIV clinic where they received care, and the federal tax credit they stood to gain, for example.

Lack of awareness, worries about medication co-pays, or even difficulty getting Internet access could all be factors, McManus said.

Virginia is not the only state moving ADAP patients into Obamacare plans, and McManus said her team’s findings raise the hope that the policy shift is having widespread positive effects.

She noted that Virginia is one of 20 states that chose not to expand Medicaid under the new health care law. Helping ADAP patients get into an Obamacare plan could be especially important in those states, she said.

More information

The Kaiser Family Foundation has more on AIDS Drug Assistance Programs.

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Americans Spend More on Health Care, But Fare Worse: Report

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A new global report shows that money doesn’t buy everything when it comes to health care in the United States.

When compared to 12 other industrialized nations, Americans shelled out the most cash on health care services, but they fared worst in terms of life expectancy, according to the Commonwealth Fund findings.

“Time and again, we see evidence that the amount of money we spend on health care in this country is not gaining us comparable health benefits,” Commonwealth Fund President Dr. David Blumenthal said in a news release from the nonprofit organization.

“We have to look at the root causes of this disconnect and invest our health care dollars in ways that will allow us to live longer while enjoying better health and greater productivity,” he added.

All that said, there is one caveat: Because most of the information in the report is based on 2013 data, the results do not take into account the implementation of many of the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

By some measures, the United States did fare relatively well. For example, the nation’s cancer death rate was near the bottom of a list that includes Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

What’s more, since 1995 that rate has been falling faster in the United States than in other nations.

On the other hand, when it comes to obesity rates and infant mortality, the United States did poorly compared to other nations.

The United States was pegged at spending slightly more than $9,000 per person per year on health care. This meant that, in sum, Americans spend more than 17 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on health care services.

That’s roughly 50 percent more than the health care expenditures of any other country, the report noted.

The second-highest health care spender, Switzerland, spent only about $6,300 on each of its citizens annually, the findings showed.

And while American life expectancy maxed out at just below 79, the more frugal Swiss can look forward to a life expectancy of nearly 83 years.

Although the United States was the only country on the list that doesn’t have universal health care coverage, the U.S. government was nevertheless shelling out far more money on health care than other developed nations, the investigators found.

For example, while the U.S. government spent almost $4,200 on health care per person (via Medicare and Medicaid) in 2013, the United Kingdom spent just $2,800 per person.

And what did Americans get for all their health care bucks? Not so much, relatively speaking. While Americans tended to see their doctors about four times a year, on average, only three nations (Switzerland, New Zealand and Sweden) had lower doctor visit rates, the study found.

Still, diagnostic services (such as PET and CT scans) were far more common in the United States. Meanwhile, apart from New Zealanders, Americans were the biggest adult consumers of prescription drugs.

More information

Here’s more on The Commonwealth Fund report.

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1 in 8 U.S. Kids Not Protected Against Measles: Report

By Emily Willingham
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — In a finding that underscores the dangers of not vaccinating all children for measles, researchers estimate that one in eight American children are vulnerable to this highly infectious disease.

The statistics are even more troubling for younger children: Almost a quarter of those under the age of 3 are susceptible to catching measles.

“We simply cannot take our eye off of this disease,” said Dr. David Kimberlin, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not involved in the study. “These new data show that we have not done as well with this as we should.”

Lead author Robert Bednarczyk is an assistant professor of global health and epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. He and his colleagues analyzed the results of a national survey of immunizations among U.S. adolescents, covering the years 2008 to 2013. Based on their analyses, the authors estimated that of the roughly 70 million children under the age of 17, almost 9 million lack immunity to measles. Some children cannot be vaccinated, whereas others are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated.

The results are to be presented Thursday at Infectious Diseases Week, the annual meeting of specialists in infectious illness, in San Diego. The findings should be considered preliminary because they have not appeared in a peer-reviewed journal.

Measles is a viral disease that was responsible for 400 deaths a day globally in 2013, according to the World Health Organization. Typical symptoms are a fever, a runny nose and a rash that spreads over the body.

It is among the most contagious of vaccine-preventable diseases because it can pass from person to person through the air, after a cough or sneeze. People can be contagious before they show symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, boosting the risk of spreading infection.

Some people cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons such as an allergy to a vaccine component. This group relies for protection on what is known as herd immunity, the buffer that immunized people provide.

According to Bednarczyk and his colleagues, for measles, at least 92 percent of the “herd” needs to be immune to protect those who can’t be vaccinated, a group that includes infants. The first of the two-shot series of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is given when children are 1 year old.

“Right now, in the older ages, we see immunity levels greater than 92 percent, which should be adequate to prevent sustained measles transmission,” said Bednarczyk, “but we do not have a very wide buffer.”

The researchers estimated that elementary school students hover near the 92 percent mark, but they report that preschool children have the lowest levels of immunity.

Kimberlin sees these estimates as worrisome. “If measles vaccination rates decline further and pass below the threshold required for community immunity, it is certain that measles will establish a foothold again in the U.S. and that American children will suffer,” he said.

If lower vaccination rates erode the buffer too much, Bednarczyk agreed, “we are at risk of seeing more outbreaks after measles importations [from other countries] and potentially sustained measles transmission.”

The United States declared sustained in-country transmission of the disease eradicated in 2000. Until the current decade, case numbers remained low. But according to the CDC, 2011 saw a bump in cases, and 23 outbreaks in 2014 added up to more than 600 cases.

So far this year, there have been 189 cases of measles in the United States, part of five outbreaks. According to the CDC, measles travels to the United States by way of infected individuals exposed overseas, and most infected people are not vaccinated.

“Because it is so contagious, and because it is still common in other parts of the world, it is incredibly important to maintain very high immunization rates among U.S. children,” said Kimberlin. “You never know when someone visiting from another country will import the virus.”

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on measles.

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