US measles cases at second highest since disease was eliminated in 2000

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

A total of 387 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 15 states from January 1 to March 28, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is the second-greatest number of cases reported in the United States since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. The highest number of reported cases since elimination was 667 in 2014.

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that can spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or if a person comes into direct contact or shares germs by touching the same objects or surfaces.

The states reporting cases are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

The CDC says six outbreaks -- defined as three or more cases -- are ongoing in California (Santa Cruz and Butte County), New Jersey, New York (Rockland County and New York City) and Washington.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/01/health/measles-total-cases-us-cdc/index.html

[Firestorm49]

1. Damn anti-vaxers are messing it up for our entire society.

So now we can add disease back onto the list of crap that is moving this country backwards. Idiotic to say the least. We worked so hard, developed so many vaccines to rid society if illness, and these morons just don’t quite get it. Stupid, incredibly stupid.

[Igel]

8. 2014 was an anomaly.

Apparently Amish and immigrants (mostly from the Philippines).

https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html is instructive.

This year, mostly linked to Philippines and Ukrainian immigrants.

In 2018, largest group was Orthodox Jews and the virus coming from Israel.

Let we think, "Bad Israel!" in 2017 the primary culprit were Somali-Americans in Minnesota. Who knew there were Somalis in Minnesota? (/snark)

2015 cases were unsolved, but the same virus was in the Philippines in 2014.

And so it goes.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. "second highest since disease was eliminated in 2000"

So then.... it apparently WASN'T "eliminated"!

And it's not just measles. It's mumps too - and that outbreak is going on right here in Philly. So far I haven't heard anything about an outbreak of German measles (Rubella). The MMR vaccine needs to be made readily available for adults again and there seems to be a resistance to recommending/giving that booster (the focus is more on the yearly flu shots and the pneumonia shots for older adults). I had asked my PCP about it just last week and he was sortof nonchalant although he noted that he could write a script to have a MMR booster done at a pharmacy (I don't trust the pharmacies - I would rather he do it). I looked at my old medical records and my last MMR booster was 50 years ago.

[BigmanPigman]

3. It that one of the "boosters" they give when you

travel to some countries?

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Not that I am aware.

My last trip out of the country - i.e., non-Caribbean (which was almost 30 years ago) required that I be up to date with polio, tetnus (dT), yellow fever, typhoid, cholera, and malaria. Those are the last ones I got (although I may have had a smallpox booster somewhere in there before that trip). And I know nowadays there are ones that Silent Gens, Boomers, & GenXers may not have had that include Chicken pox, Hepatitis A/B, and HPV.

[Orrex]

4. "Eliminated" doesn't mean "permanently eradicated"

If we eliminate all of the catastrophic idiots from the country, but later a few Trump cultists or anti-vaxxers sneak back in, then we'd get a resurgence of catastrophic idiocy.

Unless a disease is wholly eradicated, it can return. Especially if stupid fucking anti-vaxxers don't get their stupid fucking heads out of their stupid fucking asses.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. I know

I am being facetious.

This is why I have been a proponent of NOT getting rid of the stockpiles of smallpox vaccine that there had been threats about eliminating!

[Orrex]

7. :thumbsup: