Unvaccinated Travelers Returning To US Driving Increase In Measles Outbreaks, CDC Says

The AP (4/11, Shastri) reports, “Measles outbreaks in the U.S. and abroad are raising health experts’ concern about the preventable, once-common childhood virus.” In the US, “measles cases already are nearly double the total for all of last year.” The CDC has “documented 113 cases as of April 5. There have been seven outbreaks and most of U.S. cases – 73% – are linked to those flare-ups.” On Thursday, the CDC “released a report on recent measles case trends, noting that cases in the first three months of this year were 17 times higher than the average number seen in the first three months of the previous three years.” The report pointed to “unvaccinated Americans who got infected in the Middle East and Africa and brought measles back to the U.S.” as a major source of this year’s outbreaks. NBC News (4/11, Bendix) says, “The CDC report called for more widespread vaccination coverage. Around 91% of measles cases recorded in the U.S. since January 2020 were among people who were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, it said.” The virus “has been considered eliminated in the U.S. since 2000, meaning the disease is no longer constantly present, though there are still occasional outbreaks.”