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A sign at the Rockland County Health Department in Pomona, NY, explains the state of local emergency due to a measles outbreak. The disease is spread by air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It's so infectious that 90% of those who are not immune are infected if they are exposed to the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Seth Wenig / AP)
For the second week in a row, US health authorities added dozens of new cases to the list of confirmed measles cases of the year, bringing the total number of reported cases to 465 – already the highest number of five last years. This is another important point on the road to what will likely become a record outbreak as vaccines led to theelimination "in the United States.
The number of people with this highly contagious, sometimes fatal, disease increased by 78 during the first week of April, while four other states reported their first case in 2019. Today, the Measles has been discovered in more than a third of US states – up and down both coasts, across the plains, the Midwest and the South – with most diseases occurring in children.
In 2000, officials announced that they had eradicated measles in the United States. However, since then, the number of cases has increased dramatically, especially in 2014, when 667 cases were reported – the highest annual total since the beginning of the century. That year, the disease was reported at a rate of 1.83 cases per day. In 2019, however, the rate rose to 4.84 cases per day. If this pace continues, this year could exceed 2014 by June.
[U.S. measles cases surge to second-highest level in nearly two decades]
As the Washington Post has already pointed out, public health experts are associating this push with pockets of unvaccinated children across the country, populations considered vulnerable largely because their parents have hesitated or refused to vaccinate them. One of the main reasons is an anti-vaccination movement that has spread misinformation around the world.
"Even more bad news," said Peter Hotez, infectious disease expert at Baylor College of Medicine a Twitter post on new CDC numbers. "A totally useless and self-inflicted injury, and a direct result of an aggressive antivax campaign."
Hotez and colleagues from other Texas academic centers have predicted an outbreak of measles and other childhood illnesses preventable by vaccination during a study conducted last year. This report identified the 18 states that allowed parents to opt out of the vaccination requirement for reasons of religion or philosophy.
Now, Hortez told The Post last week that of the 15 countries receiving the most non-medical vaccine exemptions, half report measles cases.
[Teen who defied anti-vaxx mom says she got false information from one source: Facebook]
In a highly publicized showdown in Rockland County, the epicenter of the worst measles outbreak in New York in decades, a judge curbed controversial efforts by local authorities to ban unvaccinated children from in public places.
The judge's decision on Friday overturned a ban that would have remained in effect for another 20 days. When he announced the ban last month, county director Ed Day said his goal was to end the reported number of measles cases, a total of 167 since September 2018.
"We will not sit idly by as long as the kids in our community are in danger," Day said at a press conference in March.
But in the days that followed, the parents of a Waldorf private school took legal action, calling the ban "arbitrary" and "capricious". The parents argued that the county officials had exceeded their legal powers and their right to gather and meet in public places. "
Elsewhere in New York, including Brooklyn and Queens, the Orthodox Jewish community has been particularly hard hit. On Monday, the New York City Department of Health reiterated its December order to the Williamsburg Yeshivas, urging them to exclude unvaccinated children from school and day care centers.
"This epidemic is fueled by a small group of anti-vaxxers in these neighborhoods," said Oxiris Barbot, public health commissioner, in a statement. "They spread false dangerous information based on false scientific data."
Anti-vaccination protesters have recently decided to equate public health measures such as the Rockland County ban on the persecution of Jews by the Nazis – a comparison that has earned the blame of the anti-immigrant League. defamation and Auschwitz Memorial and Museum.
Many state legislatures are considering measures that would tighten vaccination requirements or eliminate non-medical exemptions allowing parents to avoid immunizing their children.
Meanwhile, health advocates, experts and international agencies have continued to ring the alarm about "vaccine hesitation". The World Health Organization recently called it a "major threat" for 2019.
Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.
Read more:
Anti-vaxxers face backlash as measles cases multiply
Judge finds New York County can not ban unvaccinated children from schools and parks
The lawmaker promoting an anti-vaxx bill suggests that measles can be treated with antibiotics. (It can not.)
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