Number of measles cases in US this year surpasses 1,000

WASHINGTON, United States — The number of measles cases in the United States this year has reached 1,001, health officials said Wednesday, as they vowed to stop the spread of misinformation about vaccines.

The announcement comes days after authorities declared the US was in danger of losing its "elimination status" on the contagious respiratory disease if the current outbreaks continue.

"The 1,000th case of a preventable disease like measles is a troubling reminder of how important" it is to ensure that people understand that vaccines are safe, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

Azar vowed to "continue our efforts to support local health departments and health care providers in responding to this situation, with the ultimate goal of stopping the outbreak and the spread of misinformation about vaccines."

"We cannot say this enough: Vaccines are a safe and highly effective public health tool that can prevent this disease and end the current outbreak."

The previous record number of cases came in 1992 when 963 cases were reported across the year -- a figure now surpassed in less than the first six months of 2019.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were giving health care providers guidelines for recognizing and preventing measles, and developing a toolkit for physicians to counter misinformation, Azar said.

Authorities declared measles eliminated in the US in 2000, a goal set in 1966 with the introduction of the vaccine.

Measles is considered eliminated when there is an absence of continuous disease transmission for 12 months or more in a specific geographic area, according to the CDC.

An ongoing outbreak in and around New York that started last fall is threatening the nation's "elimination status" -- if it continues for four more months, the country will no longer be able to say it has eliminated measles.

Even though New York city officials began requiring residents in heavily affected areas, many with large Orthodox Jewish communities, to be vaccinated starting in April, the city still had 173 cases that month and 60 in May.

The US has never counted zero measles cases.

Since 2000, the number has fluctuated between a few dozen and a few hundred cases per year, with 667 cases recorded during a 2014 outbreak in Ohio, especially in Amish communities.

The disease's resurgence can mostly be traced back to un- or under-vaccinated travelers who brought the infection back with them from abroad -- that's what happened last year when cases were reported throughout the country, originating from the Philippines, Israel and Ukraine.

source: philstar.com

Thousands of San Francisco commuters possibly exposed to measles on train

SAN FRANCISCO - Tens of thousands of commuters on San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system may have been exposed to measles after an infectious Bay Area resident rode a train to and from work for three days last week, public health officials said on Wednesday.

The rider represents the first case of measles confirmed by Contra Costa County health officials during an outbreak of the disease that began in late December. The infected person also spent time at a San Francisco restaurant and bar on the evening of Feb. 4.

"Although the risk of contracting measles by being exposed on BART is low, Bay Area residents should be aware of the situation," the county public health department said in a statement.

The California Department of Public Health said on Wednesday that 110 cases of measles had been confirmed in California, many of them linked to the outbreak that authorities believe began when an infected person from out of the country visited Disneyland in late December.

More than three dozen more cases have been documented in other U.S. states and in Mexico. Most people recover from measles within a few weeks, although it can be fatal in some cases.

In the Bay Area case, the infected person was known to have traveled between the Lafayette station in the East Bay and the Montgomery station in San Francisco during the morning and evening rush-hour commutes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.

That ride is 35 minutes long, but health officials said the highly infectious, airborne virus could have remained in the air for up to two hours. Because BART cars circulate throughout the Bay area, tens of thousands of people could have potentially been exposed, Trost said.

The infected rider, who was not identified by name, age or gender, also spent time at the E&O Kitchen and Bar in San Francisco on Wednesday evening, potentially exposing others who were in the restaurant between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., health officials said.

Public health officials said they were tracing the movements of the person, who is recovering and not hospitalized, and notifying others known to have had close contact.

Authorities sought to downplay the risk to commuters or diners, however, saying that most people had been inoculated for the disease, but urged anyone who had not to get vaccinated.

"We do know that measles has been circulating through the Bay Area. This person doesn't know where they were exposed," said Erika Jenssen, Contra Costa County's communicable disease programs chief.

Among the more than three dozen cases reported outside of California are 10 in Cook County, Illinois, nine of them associated with a daycare center in the city of Palatine.

The measles outbreak has renewed a debate over the so-called anti-vaccination movement, in which fears about potential side effects of vaccines, fueled by now-debunked research suggesting a link to autism, have prompted a small minority of parents to refuse inoculations for their children.

Some parents also opt not to have their children vaccinated for religious or other reasons.

Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 after decades of intensive childhood vaccine efforts. But in 2014 the country had its highest number of measles cases in 20 years. (Additional reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles)

source: interaksyon.com

Measles outbreak in Australia traced to Filipino dancer

MANILA, Philippines - An outbreak of measles in Australia has been traced to a Filipino dancer, Australian media has reported.

A report by the Sydney Morning Herald said the measles outbreak "began when a Filipino man with flu-like symptoms competed at the 2013 World Supremacy Battlegrounds (WSB), attended by more than 2000 people at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre in Homebush on December 7 and 8."

It said a 10-year-old girl from Adelaide, who attended the competition, was next to be infected with measles followed by a woman from Auckland, another person from Sydney, nine more from Turangi and Taupo in New Zealand, and a 21- year-old man from Melbourne.

Philippine Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Secretary Enrique Tayag cried foul over the report, saying it was not yet confirmed whether the Filipino dancer indeed contracted and/or spread the measles virus.

"Bakit 'yong MERS-Corona Virus, ni isa walang naninisi pa sa mga bansang Middle East. Tapos tayo dahil sa isang maliit na bansa sisihin ngayon. Huwag naman sana," Tayag said during a forum in Manila on Tuesday.

[Why is it that nobody blamed the countries in the Middle East when the MERS-Corona virus spread? And now, because we are a small country, we are being blamed. I hope it's not done that way.]

The Herald report said that when the disease broke out, WSB organizers contacted dancers who competed at Homebush and finally traced the spread of measles "to a competitor from a Manila dance troupe, FMD Xtreme, whose management said had turned up at the competition with flu-like symptoms."

"After further investigation, we have since discovered the source of the disease. An adult male dance competitor from the Philippines was infected by measles," WSB event director Marco Selorio said in a statement posted on the WSB Facebook account.

Selorio said that according to the dancer's team manager, the Filipino "showed flu-like symptoms on the day of international competition on December 8, but continued to dance after he received cold and flu tablets."

"He was bed-ridden for a few days after the event. He did not know that he had measles until the rashes appeared. His rashes did not show until he returned to the Philippines on 11th December. He was soon confined to hospital and isolated for two weeks until he was healed," said Selorio.

He said it was an "unfortunate incident that the spread of measles could not be prevented."

"Had we known earlier that the competitor or any of our dancers contracted the illness, we would have prevented them from entering the competition premises," Selorio added.

Meanwhile, the DOH is looking at the possibility that displaced victims of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) may have contributed to the measles outbreak in Metro Manila.

But Tayag was quick to add that the agency wasn’t blaming the typhoon victims for the spread of the disease.

Tayag said the DOH was surprised to find out that many child-victims of the typhoon had not yet been vaccinated against measles. "Sa Manila noong magbakuna sila, laking gulat nila ng malaman nila na marami pa palang batang hindi nabakunahan.”

The DOH is now conducting a survey to find out if those who got sick with measles came from the areas devastated by Yolanda.

source: interaksyon.com