Measles

Not everyone recognizes measles as the serious disease it really is, possibly because it used to be a routine part of everyone's childhood, and also because we don't see it nearly as much as we used to. But measles can be deadly. The 10th Century Persian physician Rhazes considered measles "more to be dreaded than smallpox." Measles still kills about a million people a year around the world. Measles can also make a pregnant woman have a miscarriage or give birth prematurely.Measles vaccine was licensed in 1963. As children started getting the vaccine, measles quickly began to disappear. Today we see only about a hundred cases a year.