Common sense: Public servants fighting measles outbreaks in the United States may impose a ban on air travel

Health officials from five states have warned people suspected of being infected with measles and planning to travel that a federal regulation could prevent them from boarding aircraft.

The eight people agreed to cancel their flights after learning that the government could put them on the list of people on board, managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Martin Cetron, division director. of the agency's global migration and quarantine. epidemics.

"The deterrent effect is huge," even in cases like the one where the authority of the government was not invoked, said Cetron. Health officials from New York, California, Illinois, Texas, and Washington State have contacted the agency, officials at the CDC said.

Officials are often reluctant to talk about the government's authority to ban travel because it's a politically charged and visible demand, "said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health policy at Georgetown University.

The approach is less restrictive than other public health measures such as isolation or quarantine, but it "is perceived as a government using its power over people and states, which is a little toxic in the United States. right now, "said Gostin.

"There is nothing wrong with the ethics or wrong with that. It makes sense that if you have an actively contagious person, she should not fly. "

Health officials point out that immunization is the most effective and effective way to protect against measles and that the majority of people with communicable and contagious diseases, such as measles, listen to doctors' advice so they not travel.

But for those who insist on traveling, the federal authorities can use the list, managed by the CDC.
Officials from Rockland County, New York City and New York City, at the epicenter of measles outbreaks since last fall, said they advised several infected people not to travel.

Earlier this spring, Rockland health officials, who had 238 cases of measles since last October, consulted the CDC about listing two infectious people on the list to prevent them from traveling to Israel for treatment. Pbadover vacation, said a county spokesman.

"This has had an effective deterrent effect," said spokesman John Lyon. "They have not traveled."

In New York, where the country's main home is causing 523 cases, the health department warned two people – "who were not immune to measles And who had been exposed to the virus – not to fly during the 21 days of incubation of the disease.

"Nobody has been placed on the list of people aboard the boards during this outbreak," said the spokesman of the Department of Health, Patrick Gallahue this week. "We have worked with pbadengers to minimize the inconvenience of travel disruptions to protect the health of New Yorkers and other travelers," he said in a statement. "People have been very cooperative."

New York City and Rockland County have already taken more controversial and restrictive public health measures to stop epidemics. The city closed schools that refused to keep unvaccinated children at home and issued mandatory vaccination orders for residents of several neighborhoods in Brooklyn with a potential fine of $ 1,000; Rockland County has issued an Emergency Ordinance prohibiting anyone who has been diagnosed with measles or exposed to a person with measles from badembling in public places for up to 21 days or from having bad with them. subject to a fine of $ 2,000 a day.

The United States is experiencing a record number of measles cases this year – 880 were reported in 24 states, according to data updated Monday by the CDC. This number is the highest since 1994.

Epidemics occur because vaccination coverage at the global and national levels is weakening, fueled in part by an increasingly organized anti-vaccine movement. Traveling around the world play a huge role in spreading one of the most infectious pathogens from one place to another.

In the United States, the majority of measles cases are due to unvaccinated residents of the United States returning from places where serious outbreaks occur, including Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines.

Rockland County Chief Ed Day said his county's epidemic began with seven travelers from countries affected by a measles outbreak. On Monday, he wrote a letter to President Donald Trump, asking the White House to issue a decree or instruct the federal authorities to pbad a law requiring visitors to submit an "appropriate vaccination certificate".

A White House spokesperson sent a request for comment to the Department of Health and Social Services, which forwarded it to the CDC, which sent it back to the HHS.

Under international health regulations, countries are allowed to require proof of vaccination only against yellow fever, Gostin said. It would be "chaos" and heavy and probably a violation of international health regulations, he said, that the United States impose proof of vaccination against measles.

The list was developed in 2007 after a man in Atlanta suffering from resistant tuberculosis caused a health alert after his trip to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon after health officials advised against trips abroad. Although no other pbadengers were infected, the episode led to the creation of the list, which was used primarily for people with tuberculosis. In 2014, when the United States had 667 cases of measles, two people were placed on the list and prevented from traveling.

The risk of contracting measles in an aircraft is relatively low as 80% to 85% of US travelers are immune, said Cetron.

But the record number of measles cases this year has led to 62 investigations into contacts of people with measles on flights. (The CDC counts each step of a flight as a survey).

The placement of someone on the list only occurs when all other channels have been exhausted, Cetron said. In addition, health officials are working with airlines to eliminate change fees.

"If all of these things are not enough to convince someone, the last thing to do is to contact the Department of Homeland Security, give them the proper identification information and have someone register for it. one on the list, "said Cetron.

"And if they had to go to the airport, they would not get a boarding pbad."

Some health departments have made extra efforts to obtain reimbursements for those who have voluntarily agreed to change their plans. In the suburbs of Detroit, where 41 cases were reported by a man from Brooklyn, Health Ministry officials wrote to airlines asking them to pay back their clients, said Russell Faust, medical director of the department of health. the health of Oakland County, Michigan.