Measles Infections in U.S. Up This Year
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting that the number of measles cases so far this year are running three times higher than the recent average. As USA Today reports:
The USA is experiencing a spike in measles, with 175 confirmed cases and 20 hospitalizations so far this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That's about three times the usual number of cases of measles, CDC Director Thomas Frieden said Thursday. The USA has seen nine outbreaks this year, with the largest in New York, North Carolina and Texas.
More than 98% of measles patients were unvaccinated, Frieden said.
"This isn't the failure of a vaccine; it's the failure to vaccinate," Frieden said….
The country's safety net has become more porous in recent years, as like-minded parents who refuse vaccines have clustered in the same communities.
In August, for example, a visitor who had traveled abroad infected 15 people at a Texas megachurch. One of those infected was a 4-month-old baby, too young to have received a first measles shot.
For more background see my article, "Refusing Vaccinations Puts Others At Risk."