US faces worst measles outbreak in 20 years

[LuckyTheDog]

WASHINGTON — After declaring in 2000 that measles had been eliminated from the U.S. through a successful vaccination program, government officials now say the number of confirmed cases has reached a 20-year high as people who get the disease abroad bring it back to America.

Unvaccinated residents in the U.S. and foreign visitors who traveled to the Philippines, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific are the main culprits in a growing spike of measles cases in this country that began several years ago and exploded this year.

To date, 288 cases have been reported in 18 states, the highest year-to-date total since 1994 when 963 cases were reported by year's end.

The overwhelming majority of U.S. cases are among people who have chosen to go unvaccinated for personal, religious or philosophical reasons, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

MORE HERE: http://wonkynewsnerd.com/us-faces-worst-measles-outbreak-20-years/

[Liberal Veteran]

1. If only we some way to keep people from catching the disease.

Guess we'll just have to live with it.

[postulater]

2. Just to put a little perspective to this.

"A lower limit of 200,000 deaths per year was associated with preventable harm in hospitals."

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/781687-john-james-a-new-evidence-based-estimate-of.html#document/p1/a117333

Now THAT's an Outbreak.