Measles cases in the United States, from 1 January 2019 to 26 April 2019. Measles cases in the U.S. have now exceeded the highest number on record in a single year since the disease was eliminated in 2000. The states that have reported cases to CDC are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington. Graphic: CDC
Measles cases in the United States, from 1 January 2019 to 26 April 2019. Measles cases in the U.S. have now exceeded the highest number on record in a single year since the disease was eliminated in 2000. The states that have reported cases to CDC are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington. Graphic: CDC

By Lena H. Sun
25 April 2019

(The Washington Post) – Measles cases in the United States have now exceeded the highest number on record in a single year since the disease was eliminated in 2000.

Nationwide, 695 cases of the vaccine-preventable illness had been reported in 22 states this year, as of 3 p.m. Wednesday [704 on Monday, 29 April 2019
– Des], according to a statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than the 667 cases reported in 2014, when one large outbreak, primarily among unvaccinated people in Amish communities in Ohio, accounted for more than half of the total that year.

In a statement late Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the United States is seeing “a resurgence of measles, a disease that had once been effectively eliminated from our country. … Measles is not a harmless childhood illness, but a highly contagious, potentially life-threatening disease.”

He called the measles vaccines “among the most extensively studied medical products we have,” with their safety “firmly established over many years in some of the largest vaccine studies ever undertaken.” He said the CDC is ready to support public health departments in monitoring and responding to these outbreaks.

The high number of cases this year is primarily the result of a few large outbreaks, the CDC said Wednesday. The outbreaks in New York City and New York State are among the largest and longest lasting since 2000. “The longer these outbreaks continue, the greater the chance measles will again get a sustained foothold in the United States,” the CDC said.

The outbreaks are linked to travelers who brought measles back from countries such as Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines, where large measles outbreaks are occurring.

This year, as in the past, officials say the majority of people in the U.S. who have fallen ill were unvaccinated. In some communities, anti-immunization activists have spread false claims about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, causing concern among parents about inoculating their children. When many people in a community have not been vaccinated, the disease can spread quickly.

The CDC said misinformation about the safety of the vaccine is “a significant factor contributing to the outbreaks in New York.”” The agency said some organizations, which it did not name, are “deliberately targeting these communities with inaccurate and misleading information about vaccines.” [more]

Measles cases break record since disease was eliminated in United States in 2000