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Well, this is a bit troubling. According to the World Health Organization, the measles are making a comeback. Thanks to vaccines, the US declared the measles eliminated in 2000. However, the highly contagious virus, which can have serious complications, is once again spreading in the States. There’s already an outbreak in Europe, which saw 30 times more cases in 2023 than in 2022. This has led to the UK Health Security Agency to declare a “national incident” due to the significant public health risk.
So far, clusters of American cases have been found in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia. Why, you may ask, is a disease that we can prevent the spread of suddenly popping up all over the world? Yeah, you guessed it: declining levels of vaccination plus international travel. Contact tracing has determined at least one outbreak has come from an unvaccinated individual who traveled abroad to a country with an outbreak. It’s almost like the medical and science professionals who have been globally begging people to get vaccinated against preventable diseases were onto something.
Nearly a dozen cases of measles have been reported in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia in recent weeks, according to local health departments. International travel, coupled with declining global vaccination rates, is probably behind this spate of cases, experts say.
The Philadelphia Department of Public Health has confirmed at least nine cases of measles over the past month after a person contracted the highly contagious virus outside the United States and exposed a parent and child at a children’s hospital, according to health department spokesperson James Garrow. That exposure then led to a Philadelphia day care outbreak that includes at least five children.
Health officials in Virginia are also warning people who recently traveled out of two D.C.-area airports – Dulles International Airport on January 3 and Reagan Washington National Airport on January 4 – of potential exposure to the virus after someone returning to the US from abroad traveled through Northern Virginia.
Additionally, a single case of measles has been confirmed in “an unvaccinated resident of the metro Atlanta area,” the Georgia Department of Public Health announced Thursday.
“The individual was exposed to measles while traveling out of the country,” a news release said. “DPH is working to identify anyone who may have had contact with the individual while they were infectious.”
It’s not only the United States. In the UK, a measles outbreak continues to widen: There have been 216 confirmed cases and 103 probable cases reported since October. The UK Health Security Agency has declared a national incident to signal the growing public health risk.
“It’s always concerning when we have a case of measles because of the probability that it’s going to spread to other individuals,” said Dr. Thomas Murray, a professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine who focuses on infectious diseases and global health.
“About 90% of susceptible people who are exposed will come down with signs and symptoms of the disease, so it’s very contagious.”
According to the CDC, 92% of US children have been vaccinated against measles via the MMR vaccine, which is shy of the national target of 95%. It’s very frustrating to have the tools available to prevent harmful viruses like the measles from spreading, yet not be able to stop people from believing misinformation despite the evidence of their eyes and ears.
Since 2020, I have unfriended and muted a lot of former high school classmates, a couple of neighbors, and a handful of family members, all who suddenly believe that all vaccines, even the ones they themselves have gotten, were harmful and/or the government’s way of controlling us. At least eight of the Pennsylvania cases were in unvaccinated children, and several have resulted in hospitalization. Georgia’s cases involved unvaccinated individuals as well. It doesn’t have to be like this. I don’t know how to stop it or what we do to get back on track, but something needs to give. I really hope all of the children affected by this outbreak make a quick and full recovery. This is also a really good reminder for us sane folk out here that for all of our nationalism and individualism, we really are all connected and contagious diseases know no boundaries.
Photos credit: Oleksandr Latkun / ImageBROKER / Avalon and CDC via Unsplash
