Editorial: measles elimination in Australia.

Measles is the most important cause of vaccine-preventable death in the world. In 1998, there were an estimated 30 million measles cases and 880,000 measles-associated deaths worldwide with 85 per cent of deaths occurring in Africa and South East Asia. 1 In recent years a dramatic reduction in measles incidence and the elimination of endemic measles transmission has been achieved in a number of countries using a variety of vaccination strategies. 2