In measles outbreak, we are 'victims of our success'

Most parents of young children today never, in their own childhoods, witnessed siblings and friends fall ill with measles. Many doctors in the U.S. have never seen a case. Five decades of vaccination efforts virtually eliminated the virus from this country. The measles vaccine, which became widely available in the U.S. in 1963, has protected millions of children from illness and saved thousands of lives. But now many experts say the current measles outbreak -- which has so far sickened more than 150 people -- demonstrates what happens over time when the frightening realities of a contagious disease fade into history.