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.

• See more health and medicine conversations with STAT

Guest

• Helen Branswell, infectious diseases and public health reporter for STAT. She tweets @HelenBranswell.

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