Measles Outbreak: Cases Keep Going Up In Rockland

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — The measles outbreak has risen to 116 confirmed cases in Rockland County, with five more suspected cases that health department officials are monitoring.

Rockland is not alone.

In 2018, 349 individual cases of measles were confirmed in 26 states and the District of Columbia, the second-greatest number of annual cases reported since measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. (The greatest was 667 cases reported in 2014).

With 22 cases since Jan. 1, a county in Oregon has declared its measles outbreak a public emergency and required exclusion of students and staff without documented immunity to measles from schools, child care and other congregate settings.

Also, measles outbreaks related to unvaccinated travelers from Israel are ongoing in the tri-state area.

As of Jan. 23, there have been 62 confirmed cases of measles in the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn since October. It is considered ongoing.

The New Jersey outbreak is considered over. Between October and January, there were 33 outbreak-associated cases identified, including 30 confirmed cases in Ocean County residents and 3 cases in one Passaic County household that had a direct epidemiologic link to the outbreak community.

Most people who got measles in the USA in 2018 were unvaccinated, the CDC said.

Also, the CDC recommends that if you are traveling to Israel or Ukraine, where another large outbreak is occurring, make sure you are vaccinated against measles before departure.

Photo via Centers for Disease Control