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JTA – The measles outbreak in Israel began in September after thousands of Orthodox pilgrims, mostly Hasidic, brought the Uman virus back to Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of Jews gather each year in the central Ukrainian city on the occasion of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, near what many regard as the burial place of Rabbi Nachman, an eighteenth-century fixture.
The measles epidemic in Ukraine began in 2017 and registered nearly 70,000 cases, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. At the end of September, following the annual pilgrimage of Uman and Rosh Hashana, measles cases exploded in Israel at 949 in October, according to the newspaper quoting Dr. Patrick O'Connor. , head of the rapid disease control team at the World Health Organization office, which oversees Israel. It is thought that the cause is the many pilgrims returned from Ukraine with the virus.
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Meanwhile, a measles outbreak in New York began in October with a child from the Bensonhurst section in Brooklyn who had come to Israel. Also in October, an epidemic began among orthodox Jews in London.
A woman receives a measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine at the Rockland County Department of Health in Pomona, NY on March 27, 2019. (Seth Wenig / AP)
The measles epidemic in Israel began in March 2018, according to O'Conner, in a small Orthodox community in Safed, in the north of the country.
Most Orthodox Jews in Israel have no problem with vaccines, which are provided free of charge on the spot. However, large orthodox families often fail to ensure that all their children are vaccinated.
Immunization rates among the Orthodox in Israel are around 80% and the virus spreads faster as Orthodox children attend more life cycle events such as marriages and circumcisions, which which gives them more chances of being exposed.
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