Measles: 78 new cases have been reported in the country since last week, according to the CDC

This is 78 more cases than the number reported last week and includes cases reported to the CDC by state health services as of 4 April.

Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts and Nevada reported their first measles cases this year, bringing to 19 the total number of states reporting cases. Other states reporting measles cases this year are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, and Illinois. Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

The total number of measles cases in the country this year "is the second highest number of cases reported in the United States since the elimination of measles in 2000," says the CDC. This threshold was reached last week when the national total for the year exceeded the total of 372 last year. The largest outbreak occurred in 2014, when 667 cases were reported nationally due to several large-scale outbreaks.

Measles is a highly contagious and vaccine preventable respiratory disease characterized by eruption of red and flat plaques. Symptoms may include fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes.

As of Thursday, 17 cases have been reported in California. Health officials in New Jersey reported 13 cases for the year Friday. Seven cases have now been reported in Illinois.

Michigan reported 39 cases on Friday, all but one in Oakland County.

Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada and Arizona each reported a case in March. Health officials in Indiana reported the first case of measles occurred on Friday. Massachusetts health officials also reported the state's only 2019 case last week.

Washington state reported 78 cases in an outbreak that began in January. This includes people in Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and Georgia who have all been contaminated in Washington. (Hawaii is not on the list of CDC reporting states, as these have been reported by Washington.)

Oregon also reported seven other cases unrelated to this outbreak.

In February, Colorado, Kentucky, Connecticut and Texas all reported cases of measles.

An outbreak is also ongoing in observant Jewish neighborhoods in New York that began in October when, according to health officials, an unvaccinated child was infected with the disease while traveling to Israel.

"Since then, new people in Brooklyn and Queens have been vaccinated and contracted measles in Israel, and people who have not traveled have also been infected in Brooklyn and Rockland County," the site said. Web of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of New York. Based on counts by local health units, at least 441 cases of measles have been reported in this state since October as part of this outbreak.

Measles is endemic in many countries other than the United States. It is introduced when unvaccinated or under-vaccinated persons visit a place where the virus is circulating or when people living in the United States go to such a place and come back with an infection.

Health officials said the proliferation of anti-vaccine rhetoric had, in part, led to an increase in the number of measles cases and other vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States.