Since December 2023, 23 people have been confirmed to have been infected with measles.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning clinicians to remain vigilant for measles cases as the number of infections increases.
According to an email sent this week, from Dec. 1, 2023 to Jan. 23, 2024, there were 23 confirmed measles cases, including seven in international travelers, each involving five or more infected people. Two cases occurred.
Cases have so far been reported in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Washington, DC area.
Most of these cases were children and adolescents who were eligible for measles vaccination but did not receive it.
According to the CDC, most measles cases in the United States are caused by unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Americans who travel abroad, become infected with measles, and are not vaccinated upon their return. It occurs when it is transmitted to people.
Federal health officials said the rise in cases in the United States reflects the rise in cases worldwide, posing a “growing global threat.”
“Due to recent cases, health care workers should be on alert for patients with: (1) febrile exanthematous illness and symptoms consistent with measles (for example., cough, coryza, or conjunctivitis), or (2) recent travel abroad, particularly to countries with ongoing measles outbreaks,'' the CDC said in the message.
The CDC says that if a health care worker suspects a patient has measles, they should immediately isolate the patient for at least four days after symptoms appear and notify the local or state health department. The patient should then be tested, close contacts should be provided with post-exposure prophylaxis, and all contacts who are not up to date on measles vaccination should be vaccinated.
Measles is a highly contagious disease, and the CDC estimates that if an infected person is unprotected, such as not wearing a mask or not vaccinated, every person infected with the virus can kill up to 10 people. It states that there is a possibility of infecting close contacts of the person.
Complications from measles can be relatively benign, such as a rash, or more serious, such as viral sepsis, pneumonia, and brain swelling.
The CDC says people who have had measles at some point in their lives or who have received two doses of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine are protected from measles.
One dose of measles vaccine is 93% effective in preventing infection if exposed to the virus. It is 97% effective after two doses.
In 2000, measles was declared eliminated from the United States thanks to a highly effective vaccination campaign, but in recent years outbreaks have occurred in unvaccinated areas of the country.
From November 2022 to February 2023, 85 children in Ohio contracted measles, 80 of whom were unvaccinated.
In California, an unidentified measles-infected person who visited Disneyland sparked an outbreak that infected 125 people between December 2014 and February 2015.
