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RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) – Six people who recently traveled to the United States after fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan have been diagnosed with measles, officials said on Tuesday.
The cases in Virginia and Wisconsin are being reported four days after the United States halted flights to Afghans following the discovery of a few cases of measles among the new arrivals.
A case was confirmed Sept. 5 at Fort McCoy, a military base in western Wisconsin that temporarily houses 8,000 people as they prepare to settle across the country.
Cheryl Phillips, spokesperson for a task force overseeing refugees at Fort McCoy, said one person was showing symptoms on September 4 after arriving at the base earlier in the day.
The person has been placed in isolation and other potentially exposed people have been quarantined and vaccinated against measles, Phillips said.
The Virginia Department of Health initially said on Friday that three people who had arrived from Afghanistan had been diagnosed with measles in northern Virginia. The agency said it was informing people who were at risk of exposure in places such as Dulles International Airport and two local hospitals.
The agency updated its measles case count to five in a press release on Tuesday. Health officials said they were working to educate those potentially exposed at an unidentified Richmond hospital as well as at Fort Pickett, an Army National Guard base southwest of Richmond that provides a temporary accommodation for newly arrived evacuees.
Measles is a highly contagious disease that can be spread through coughing, sneezing, and contact with droplets from the nose, mouth or throat. Most Americans are vaccinated against it as a child.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that all arriving Afghans must be vaccinated against measles as a condition of entry into the United States. they are still abroad.
The measles cases in Virginia and Wisconsin were reported following the US government shutdown on Friday of Afghan evacuee flights to the United States. The decision was made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Psaki said on Friday the shutdown resulted from the discovery of measles in four Afghans who arrived in the United States.
The development prompted US officials overseas on Friday to withdraw planes from Afghan families who had already struggled to escape dangerously and exhausting after Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15. A suicide bombing at an airport gate killed 169 Afghans and 13 US servicemen.
A government document viewed by the Associated Press said the shutdown would “have a serious impact” on operations at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, one of the largest transit sites. He also said flights to the United States would stop from the US base of al-Udeid in Qatar.
Several thousand Afghans airlifted from Kabul are still en route to new homes in the United States. Some are in danger of being resettled for further examination in Kosovo.
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