Eradication vs Elimination vs Importation of a VPD

To understand the difference of eradication of a vaccine preventable disease and importation of a VPD, you must first know the definitions.

In light of recent events of the cases of measles, and since measles has been eradicated from the US, we'll use this VPD as an example.

ERADICATE

1:  to pull up by the roots
2:  to do away with as completely as if by pulling up by the roots

To pull up by the 'roots' and do away with as completely as if by pulling up by the 'roots,' means to fully remove wild, (homegrown) measles from the US.
Measles was never non-existent in the US, at least not in my or your lifetime or one of your ancestors from a few centuries.


ELIMINATION

1. The act or process of removing something or someone

A disease can be eliminated, just as wild measles was in 2000 but there has never been a year that the US has NOT experienced any cases of measles.

IMPORT

1:  to bring from a foreign or external source: as
a :  to bring (as merchandise a virus) into a place or country from another country
b :  to transfer (as files or data a virus) from one format country to another [country] usually within carried by a new file host [who has recently traveled abroad]

To take the words in the definition of import, and replace it with appropriate words to define the word import, (as in imported virus) I have replaced the words with a strike through with the appropriate words and add the words in [brackets] to give a broader definition.

And interesting factoid that not many people realize is that in 2000, the year wild type measles was eliminated from the US, according to the CDC there were 86 cases of measles in the US, yet the news media will tell you that measles was eradicated from the US. EIGHTY-SIX cases of measles in 2000 does not equal eradication. Wild type measles virus was eliminated, not eradicated. These cases were all imported.

If you take a look at the stories of cases in the news media, [usually] it will tell you that the original host was contagious and (unknowingly,) spread the disease to others, and had been out of the county recently. There are some references that this original host had or had not been vaccinated, yet most of the time, if there is any mention of the host and their vaccination status, it is usually put out in the 1st or 2nd paragraph and repeated by a medical professional. What I have found is that many news media are not mentioning if the original host had been vaccinated. In this case, there is always a push to tell people to get their vaccines so they will not contract nor spread the disease.

Another, and quite often I must say, is that those who are pro-vaccine, will jump at the chance to tell everyone, "These vaccine preventable diseases are coming back because of the anti-vaccine movement. Even measles is back with a vengeance after being eradicated in 2000." My guess is that those who are talking about this in a group as broadcasters sometimes do, will draw straws or play rock paper scissors to decide who gets to tell everyone that.

I have not found one piece of news media, that does not push the need to vaccinate and some have even mentioned that infants younger than 12 months who are in an area of an 'outbreak' should get the MMR vaccine. 12 months is the recommended age to get the first dose of MMR and to be repeated at 4-6 years of age. Many people do not have any record of MMR vaccination since the family practice Dr has since passed away and his clinic is no longer in operation, (obviously). I highly doubt anything was ever put on a floppy disk, (or any kind of computer) since there were only typewriters and copy machines in the office.

So, there you have it. There is no anti-vaccine movement causing all the measles outbreaks, (if you find any documented studies please let me know,) and if you do have a person who has not been vaccinated yet, they are probably too young or in the case of the lovely media, the person does not know their vaccination status, (meaning they do not have documentation of receiving a vaccine,) so they are put in the 'unvaccinated' population by the media.