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A measles outbreak is spreading in a county in Washington known for not choosing to vaccinate its children, and health officials have declared a public health emergency.
UNITED STATES TODAY & # 39; HUI

The number of measles cases this year in the United States is close to the total for all of last year, with five states reporting outbreaks in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One outbreak, defined as three or more cases, has been reported in New York, Washington, Texas, Illinois and California.

As of March 31, 314 cases across the country are approaching 372 for the last year.

In Rockland County, just north of New York, where 155 cases were confirmed Wednesday, county director Ed Day said the state of emergency this week, banning anyone less unvaccinated 18-year-old to appear in a public place. Offenses are punishable by a fine of $ 500 or a six-month prison sentence.

This ban, which will last 30 days, provoked a brutal reaction from a small group of immunization advocates who demonstrated Thursday at the Palisades Center shopping center in West Nyack, what they nicknamed on Facebook. "Rockland County – Unvaccinated civil disobedience. "

"We are talking about healthy people quarantined and banned from public places," said Rita Palma, one of the protesters. "People have the right to choose their own children and make their own decisions."

In this archival photo, a medical worker holds an anti-measles-rubella vaccine. (Photo: CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN, AFP / Getty Images)

Rockland County reports that the outbreak can be traced back to September 2018, with the arrival of an international traveler suspected of a case.

Infectious disease experts have described such a general ban on minors in public places as unprecedented government action in the fight against a measles epidemic.

"This is something I have never seen before in my professional experience," said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, Senior Public Health Officer in Seattle, Washington. "What tells me, is that local public health officials have the feeling of having an extraordinary epidemic on their hands."

The CDC attributes epidemics across the country to two factors: an increase in the number of travelers reporting measles from abroad, including Israel and Ukraine, and what it is calls "a new spread of measles in American communities with pockets of unvaccinated people."

According to New York City Health, most of the 214 confirmed cases of measles in Brooklyn and Queens are related to members of the Orthodox Jewish community. According to Kaiser Health News, many children from Orthodox Jewish families attend religious schools where vaccination rates may be below the 95% threshold deemed necessary to maintain immunity.

According to New York Health Services, the initial case that triggered the epidemic in the region concerned an unvaccinated child who contracted the disease during a visit to Israel, where a large-scale epidemic is occurring. In progress.

Outside of New York, measles outbreaks have been reported in the states of Washington, Texas, Illinois and California.

Prior to the launch of the measles vaccination program in the United States in 1963, measles infected up to 4 million people a year. Nearly 50,000 people have been hospitalized and between 400 and 500 people die each year. In 2000, after nearly 40 years of vaccination program, measles was declared eliminated in the United States, reports the CDC.

Robert Kennedy Jr., left, along with a group of participants at a rally against the bill that would prevent parents from seeking a philosophical waiver allowing them to not use the combined measles, mumps vaccine and rubella, on February 8th at the Capitol at Olympia, Wash. (Photo: Ted S. Warren, AP)

People who choose not to vaccinate have become a global threat to health. reported. The CDC recognized that the number of children who had not been vaccinated before the age of 24 months was gradually increasing.

Many anti-vaccination activists believe that there is a link between the vaccine and autism. Others think that the decision to vaccinate belongs to the parents and not to the government.

In Denmark, a new study of more than half a million people found that measles vaccine did not increase the risk of autism, further reinforcing the medical community's thoughts on preventive vaccines.

Prior to the last report, the link between autism and the vaccine had long been discredited, with official groups including the CDC having reported no proven links or any ingredients in vaccines that could cause autism. Still a minority of parents chose not to vaccinate their children. In addition, laws continue to be presented in favor of the anti-vaxx movement.

Leading medical and health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, support vaccines as safely and effectively.

"While these parents undoubtedly have their children's interests at heart, they endanger them and everyone else, and they have consequences for public health," said Dr. Aaron Glatt, spokesperson. Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Contributing: Ashley May; Rochel Leah Goldblatt, Nancy Cutler, David Robinson and Matt Spillane, Rockland / Westchester Journal News

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