measles

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association sent out separate but similar pleas on Monday for unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated against the extremely contagious measles virus as vaccination rates have slipped, cases are rising globally and nationally, and the spring-break travel period is beginning.In the first 12 weeks of 2024, US measles cases have already matched and likely exceeded the case total for all of 2023. According to the CDC, there were 58 measles cases reported…

Florida Risks Making a Dangerous Measles Outbreak Much WorseBy ignoring common sense and medical advice, Florida’s health officials risk accelerating a burgeoning measles outbreakBy Katelyn Jetelina & Kristen PanthaganiIllustration of measles virus. Credit: Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library/Getty ImagesAn outbreak of measles in Florida has grown to 10 cases. Most have been linked to an elementary school with nearly three dozen unvaccinated students. The count includes seven cases tied to the school, two in the same…

As of this writing, the measles outbreak in Florida is up to nine cases, including the first one recorded outside the epicenter in Broward County, in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale.Nine cases may not seem like a lot, but it’s enough to alarm epidemiologists. They point out that measles is among the most contagious viruses known to humankind, which means that the cases identified thus far are likely to be the tip of the iceberg.Who’s unconcerned? The chief public health official of the state of Florida, that’s who.…

Florida health officials on Sunday announced an investigation into a cluster of measles cases at an elementary school in the Fort Lauderdale area with a low vaccination rate, a scenario health experts fear will become more and more common amid slipping vaccination rates nationwide.On Friday, Broward County Public School reported a confirmed case of measles in a student at Manatee Bay Elementary School in the city of Weston. A local CBS affiliate reported that the case was in a third-grade student who had not recently…

UK health services are battling an outbreak of measles — causing alarm in a nation that had eliminated the disease in 2017.On 19 January, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the public-health authority, declared a national incident over rising cases of measles. The agency has logged more than 300 cases in England since 1 October 2023.A decline in uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is given in two doses, during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the spread of the disease across England and the…

Measles is back with a vengeance. In the UK, where only 85% of school-age children have received two doses of the MMR vaccine, as many as 300 people have contracted the disease since October. And cases are creeping up across the US too.Catching measles outbreaks early is tricky, though. Like many other respiratory viruses, it starts off with a cough, runny nose, fever, and achy body. The telltale rash doesn’t appear for two to four more days. By then, a person is already infectious. Very infectious, in fact. Measles is…

Maybe there’s a solution. The US developed a vast wastewater sampling network to detect covid during the pandemic. Could we leverage that network to provide an early warning system for measles? “I actually think you could make the argument that measles is even more important to than covid or influenza or any of the other pathogens that we’re looking for,” says Samuel Scarpino, an epidemiologist at Northeastern University in Boston. Wastewater surveillance relies on standard lab tests to find genetic evidence of…

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Imagine a disease more infectious than any other known to medical science, that would kill 2.6 million young children every year and leave millions more with deafness and even brain damage. It sounds like something from pandemic horror fiction, but such a disease does exist – measles.Yet even measles was tamed across the world, at least for a while. In the aftermath of the successful eradication of…

An outbreak of measles in Philadelphia is growing larger. This week, health officials announced a newly discovered case of the highly contagious viral disease in the area—the ninth reported to date. Many of these cases, including the latest one, have been traced back to a single day care center, and most if not all patients were unvaccinated against measles.Remake this Sci-Fi Film with Peter Capaldi!The outbreak appears to have begun in early December at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. An infant was admitted to…

Measles cases and deaths surged globally in 2022, with a significant increase in outbreaks across 37 countries. The WHO and CDC report attributes this rise to a decline in measles vaccination rates, particularly in low-income countries. Over 33 million children missed measles vaccinations in 2022, exacerbating the situation. Health authorities stress the need for improved vaccination coverage and response efforts to curb the disease’s spread.CDC warns that global measles threat continues to grow as another year passes…