Due to measles outbreaks in Europe, experts strongly recommend vacationers going abroad are vaccinated. Share on Pinterest If you travel abroad this summer, it’s likely you’ll bring back souvenirs and some vacation photos. However, if you are unvaccinated and aren’t careful when you’re overseas, you might also bring back a case of the measles . That’s particularly true this summer with measles outbreaks happening in Europe and elsewhere. It also comes in light of a recent study that showed 16 percent of international travelers from the United States in recent years needed a measles vaccine, but 50 percent of them declined to get one. The situation has officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as other agencies, worried. “This is not only to protect themselves, it’s also to prevent the importation of the disease,” Dr. Gary Brunette, the branch chief of the travelers’ health division at the CDC, told Healthline. Read more: Get the facts on measles »

Traveling without vaccinations The recent study was published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine. In it, researchers sifted through data collected at 24 GlobalTravEpiNet clinics between 2009 and 2014. The researchers said 40,810 people were included in their analysis. Of them, 16 percent were determined to be eligible to receive the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. However, slightly more than 50 percent of those travelers decided not to get inoculated. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said these unvaccinated travelers are taking a big risk. “It’s the single most contagious virus we know,” he told Healthline. “You also get quite sick for a few weeks. It’s a terrible disease.” “It’s a real risk for travelers,” added Brunette. Schaffner and Brunette both said the additional concern is that these travelers return to the United States before symptoms appear and then spread the highly contagious ailment. They said many of these unvaccinated travelers live in “pockets” where large numbers of a community have decided to forego immunization. In such areas, measles can spread quickly to unvaccinated people. It can also endanger people who can’t be inoculated, such as children undergoing cancer treatment. The outbreaks can also lower the overall “herd immunity” a community can develop with a high vaccination rate. “The bottom line is if they don’t bring home measles, then we won’t have it here,” said Schaffner. Read more: Rise in measles, whooping cough due to unvaccinated people »