Measles Outbreak in the US

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNew ... 3120080710


Measles outbreak hits 127 people in 15 states
Wed Jul 9, 2008 11:12pm BST Email | Print | Share| Single Page| Recommend (0) [-] Text [+]
1 of 1Full SizeBy Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The biggest U.S. outbreak of measles since 1997 has sickened 127 people in 15 states, most of whom were not vaccinated against the highly contagious viral illness, federal health officials said on Wednesday.

The outbreak was driven by travelers who became infected overseas -- 10 countries are implicated -- then returned to the United States ill and infected others, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Thanks to a vaccination program dating to 1963, measles is no longer endemic in the United States, with ongoing transmission of the virus declared eliminated in 2000.

Public health officials have been stressing the importance of immunizing children amid increasingly vocal vaccine opponents who object to them for religious or other reasons or because they fear the shots may cause autism or other harm.

British health officials said last month that measles had again become endemic in that country for the first time since the mid-1990s due to parents declining to get their children vaccinated.

"The primary reason for lack of vaccination is personal belief exemptions," the CDC's Dr. Larry Pickering told a news conference arranged by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

"Until better global control is achieved, cases will continue to be imported into the United States and outbreaks will persist as long as there are communities of unvaccinated people," Pickering said.
The CDC first gave details about the current outbreak in May when there were 72 people sick in 10 states. At that time, it was the most cases since 116 in 2001. Continued...