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The United States is on track to surpass the record number of measles cases in a single year since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, according to the numbers. reported Monday. For the fourth consecutive week, health officials added dozens of new cases to the list of confirmed cases for the year, bringing the total number of cases already registered to 626, which is already the highest number ever. last five years.
The number of people with the highly contagious and life-threatening disease increased by 71 during the third week of April, and 22 states reported cases. In 2014, the United States recorded a record 667 cases, including a large outbreak primarily in Ohio's unamended Amish communities, which accounted for more than half of the cases that year.
Health officials said they expect an increase in the number of cases in 2019 in the coming weeks due to the spread of the disease at Easter gatherings and Passover. Officials in New York, home of the country's largest home, are particularly concerned. At least 303 cases have been reported this year, almost all in Brooklyn. New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot has been preparing for an increase.
"Because of the long incubation period of measles, we know that the epidemic will worsen before it improves," she said last week.
The figures from the CDC, updated Monday, report the cases to April 18, before the start of the holidays.
States that have reported cases to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, and l & # 39; Iowa., Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
Epidemics are linked to travelers who have brought back measles from countries such as Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines, where large outbreaks of measles occur.
The majority of people who became ill were unvaccinated, officials said. In some communities, anti-vaccine activists have spread misrepresentations about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, fueling parents' reluctance or reluctance to vaccinate their children. When many people in a community have not been vaccinated, the disease can spread quickly. It can lead to serious complications in all age groups, especially young children, adults with weakened immune systems and very old people.
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The CDC defines an outbreak as three or more cases. In addition to the city of New York, there are epidemics in California; Rockland County, N.Y .; New Jersey; and Michigan, where nearly 43 cases are linked to a man who was coming from Brooklyn to visit the Detroit area without knowing that he had measles.
California has 23 cases, including four in San Mateo County, including an adult who visited Google's Mountainview headquarters, and 13 cases in Butte County, in northern California, a region devastated by forest fire. the most destructive of history.
In Washington State, 74 people contracted the infection, including 63 unvaccinated. Health officials should declare this outbreak over if no further cases are reported by Wednesday. It is two incubation periods (42 days) without new cases.
Read more:
Unaware that he had measles, a man traveled from New York to Michigan, infecting 39 people
Parents of 3 children in New York are fined $ 1,000 for measles order violation
They went to Mexico for surgery. They came back with an infection with the deadly superbug.
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