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With 555 cases in total, 2019 now has the second highest number of measles cases in the United States in 25 years – and the year is not even halfway through.
"I am obviously very concerned about the magnitude and the acceleration of the current outbreak," said Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "It's not going to stop alone."
Measles is not just growing in the United States. The World Health Organization reported Monday that there had been more than 110,000 cases of measles in the first three months of 2019, an increase of almost 300% over the same period of time. last year.
The data are provisional and the actual number of measles cases is probably higher, with the WHO estimating that less than 1 in 10 cases worldwide are reported to the agency.
Ukraine has recorded the highest number of cases in the last 12 months, with more than 72,000 cases, followed by Madagascar and India with more than 69,000 and 60,000 cases, respectively. The WHO warned that there were delays in reports and that these data might be incomplete.
A "rapidly evolving and life-threatening disease"
In addition, 1 or 2 in 1,000 children who contract measles will die.
After the vaccine, cases dropped, with 963 cases in 1994. In 2000, the disease was declared eliminated in the United States. Despite ongoing epidemics in US communities, measles is still considered eliminated, meaning that it is not spread continuously in this country. Measles would no longer be considered eliminated if it was transmitted continuously for more than 12 months.
The CDC recommends two doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine or MMR vaccine for children. The first should be administered at the age of 12 to 15 months and the second at the age of 4 to 6 years. The first dose provides 93% protection against measles and the second dose 97%.
The anti-vaxer movement
Experts point to one of the reasons for this year's big outbreak: the power of the anti-vaccination movement.
"It is terribly sad that American children are suffering from measles, which should not happen," said Dr. William Schaffner, Medical Director of the National Infectious Disease Foundation and CDC Advisor on Vaccines. "We had previously eliminated this disease not only in the United States, but throughout the Western Hemisphere, and it seems like we have now gone deeply and sadly backtracked."
The 20 states reporting measles this year are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington. .
Most cases occurred in New York City, place of an epidemic of ultra-Orthodox Jews that began in the fall.
Messonier says that the New York outbreak has been particularly difficult to control.
"Most of the measles outbreaks in the United States stop earlier than that," she said.
Health officials in Rockland County, NY, have attempted to ban unvaccinated children from going to public places, but a judge has banned the county from enforcing the rule.
Messonier said it was "correcting the myths" about vaccination. The health authorities worked with the rabbis to explain that vaccination was safe, but that still has not turned the tide.
"You just have to approach people where they are and answer their questions," said Messonier. "It is the slow work of building trust."
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