Team Blitz India
Measles has surged in the U.S. over the past three months as a total of 97 cases have been reported across 17 states, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a 67 per cent increase from a total of 58 for all of 2023.
So far, a total of seven outbreaks– defined by the CDC as three or more related cases – have been reported for 2024, up from four in 2023. More than 70% of all cases this year have been associated with an outbreak, while more than half of the 97 cases involved children under 5, according to the CDC.
Over 70 per cent of those infected were either unvaccinated or had received just one dose of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
Many measles cases have occurred in the Chicago area, where an outbreak at a migrant shelter had fuelled an overall total of 52 cases, according to provisional data from the Chicago Department of Public Health. In Florida, 11 measles cases have occurred this year, according to reports, with many tied to spread among students at an elementary school in Broward County. State health officials on March 8 announced the infection period tied to the school cases had ended.
Measles is a highly contagious disease, capable of infecting up to 90% of people in proximity to someone who has it if they are not immune. The virus can lead to such complications as pneumonia and encephalitis, and can cause death in some 1 to 3 children for every 1,000 infected.
The rise in measles cases in the U.S. and globally prompted the CDC to issue an advisory in March urging parents to get their children two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, which has been shown to be 97 per cent effective.
