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Measles In Memphis, Mumps In Massachusetts. What's Going On?

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Miami Children's Hospital pediatrician Dr. Amanda Porro, M.D prepares to administer a measles vaccination to Sophie Barquin,4, as her mother Gabrielle Barquin holds her during a visit to the Miami Children's Hospital on January 28, 2015 in Miami, Florida. A recent outbreak of measles has some doctors encouraging vaccination as the best way to prevent measles and its spread. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Miami Children's Hospital pediatrician Dr. Amanda Porro, M.D prepares to administer a measles vaccination to Sophie Barquin,4, as her mother Gabrielle Barquin holds her during a visit to the Miami Children's Hospital on January 28, 2015 in Miami, Florida. A recent outbreak of measles has some doctors encouraging vaccination as the best way to prevent measles and its spread. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Six people have been diagnosed with measles in the Memphis area in less than a week. That's more cases in just a few days than the entire country had seen so far in 2016.

There are also several outbreaks of mumps right now, including at universities in Indiana, Ohio and Massachusetts. At Harvard University alone, at least 40 people have been diagnosed in the last couple of months.

Here & Now's Robin Young talks to Helen Branswell, who covers infectious diseases and public health for the new national health and medicine publication STAT, about these outbreaks, and why they crop up periodically.

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This segment aired on April 27, 2016.

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