A spate of measles outbreaks could jeopardize America’s status as a country that has eliminated the disease.
As of March 7, 45 measles cases were reported in 17 states across the country this year, Knewz.com has learned.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 58 cases of measles were recorded in 2023 in 20 jurisdictions.
The largest numbers recorded this year have been in Florida, but there have been cases in other states including California, Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, and Georgia, CBS News reports.
Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, meaning it’s no longer constantly present in the country. However, the CDC notes that travelers continue to bring measles into the United States, and it can sometimes spread and cause outbreaks among people who are not vaccinated.
“If a measles outbreak continues for a year or more, the United States could lose its measles elimination status,” it said. These latest statistics show that the country could be well on the way to losing that status this year.
In an interview with The Hill, Monica Gandhi, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and associate division chief of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine, said,“Once you’ve lost that status, it just means that cases are transmitting locally, which they are, not imported. And so, we’re already in that status, where we have local transmission, and if it keeps on going up, we have to say it’s not eliminated.”
As of March 8, there had been 16 reported cases of measles in Florida.
The Hill reached out to the Florida Department of Health (DOH), which said in a statement, “While details of epidemiological investigations are confidential, many media outlets are reporting false information and politicizing this outbreak.”
Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo balked at following standard protocol. He issued a statement last month following a measles outbreak at an elementary school in Weston in Broward County saying that while the standard procedure following an outbreak is to keep home children until the end of the 21-day infection period: “Due to the high immunity rate in the community, as well as the burden on families and educational cost of healthy children missing school, DOH is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.”
The Hill reported that federal health authorities maintain a “Healthy People 2030” target of achieving 95 percent MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) immunization coverage for children.
However, that percentage has dropped to 93.1% since 2019, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic upending these scheduled vaccinations, leaving around 250,000 kindergarten children at risk of infection.
The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) is urging people to ensure their children are up to date on their MMR vaccines.
“Measles is highly contagious and can be very serious,” said NFID President Patricia A. Stinchfield. “It can lead to severe complications including pneumonia, seizures, brain damage, and even death.”
According to the NFID, about one in five unvaccinated people in the U.S. who get measles will be hospitalized, and one to three out of every 1,000 people with measles will die, even with the best care.
NFID Director Kathleen H. Harriman, who has supervised public health programs in Minnesota and California and has worked on many measles outbreaks over the years said, “Even one case of measles raises alarm bells because the disease is so contagious.”
