Brooklyn measles outbreak cost New York City near $ 400K



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A 2013 measles outbreak that hit two Brooklyn neighborhoods – infecting 58 people, all of them unvaccinated against the disease – cost nearly $ 400,000, according to a new study.

Between travel, testing equipment and over 10,000 Health care was forced to spend $ 394,448 fighting the contagion, the Journal of the American Medical Association

The outbreak began in March 2013, when a single infected child returned to New York from London, wrote city Health Dept. Dr. Jennifer B. Rosen, who authored the study along with two others.

From that point until June 2013, 58 people contracted measles in Williamsburg and Borough Park, ranging in age from infancy to 32-years-old. ] Each of the patients was a member of the Orthodox Jewish enclaves – and unvaccinated against the measles, despite being in the background, the study found

The study credited the "insular nature of the affected community" with preventing the outbreak – the largest to hit the five boroughs since 1992 – from growing even more widespread.

Still, the authors pegged the $ 400,000 bill on the lack of vaccinations.

"Measles vaccine refusals or delays can lead to large outbreaks of measles imports, with costly and resource intensive response and containment," wrote Rosen. [19659002] "The significant burden and consequences of measles outbreaks of public health" (19659008) [ad_2]
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