Column Finance and the Social Security System 2018.06.15
From 2006 to 2008, Japan experienced a measles pandemic, and most of these measles patients were teenagers. When the number of measles patients reached 11,013 in 2008 (Figure 1), Japan was stigmatized as an "Exporting Country of Measles." As a result of the government taking measures, such as promoting the second vaccination of teenagers, the pandemic calmed down, and in 2015, Japan was recognized as an "Exclusionary State of Measles" by the WHO.
However, once again, the measles epidemic has been spreading nationally (Figure 2). This began after a foreign tourist in Okinawa Prefecture was diagnosed with measles on March 20, 2018. As the number of foreign tourists increases rapidly, the importance of countermeasures against infectious diseases is once again being recognized.
Source: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Source: National Institute of Infectious Diseases