NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 18, 2019

Q: At least 922 children and young adults have died of measles in Madagascar since October according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Where is Madagascar?

Circle the area on this map


Q: WHO officials said the actual death toll might be much higher with more than 66,000 people now infected with measles on the island in the . . .

A. Atlantic Ocean

B. Caribbean Sea

C. Indian Ocean

D. Mediterranean Sea


C. The Indian Ocean island is among Africa’s poorest countries, and in 2017 only 58 percent of the population had been vaccinated against measles. About 2.2 million of the nation’s 26 million people have received vaccinations in an emergency program during the current measles outbreak.


Q: Which U.S. state recently declared a public health emergency after recording 26 confirmed cases of measles?

A. Michigan

B. Texas

C. Utah

D. Washington


D. The governor of Washington declared the health emergency on Jan. 25. Washington is one of 18 states that allow non-medical exemptions from childhood vaccinations, creating geographical "hotspots" where children are more vulnerable to preventable disease outbreaks. Michigan, Texas and Utah also have been identified with multiple hotspots.


Q: WHO blames complacency and anti-science conspiracy theories for parents resisting childhood immunizations in wealthier nations while poor nations struggle to vaccinate their people. Where have conspiracy theories led to the murder of health workers trying to immunize people?

A. Afghanistan

B. Nigeria

C. Pakistan

D. All of the above


D. Health workers immunizing people against polio in those nations were shot and killed by Muslim militants who claimed the vaccine programs were CIA plots or that they would sterilize people. Some of the skepticism has been blamed on the CIA using a sham hepatitis B vaccination project while tracking down terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.


Q: WHO reported that reported cases of measles increased 30 percent worldwide between 2016 and 2017, with most of the 6.7 million cases in 2017 in poor nations with low immunization rates. How much of a population should be vaccinated to prevent outbreaks of measles?

A. 65%

B. 75%

C. 85%

D. 95%


D. Public health researchers say that a vaccination rate of at least 95 percent is needed to prevent a measles outbreak. The rate in Washington state is 90 percent. It is much, much lower in poor nations where the measles kills tens of thousands every year and causes complications including blindness, brain swelling and pneumonia.