U.S. Measles Cases, Once Exceptionally Uncommon, Top 1,000

NEW YORK, NY — The number of measles cases in America is 1,044 across 28 states, according to the latest figures from federal health officials, the most the country has seen since 1992 and since health officials declared measles eliminated 19 years ago.

The country saw 22 more cases of measles compared to the previous week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The overall number of cases is now nearly three times as many as there were all of last year.

The measles virus causes fevers and rashes and is highly contagious. It lives in the nose and throat mucus and spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It can even live for up to two hours in an airspace where an infected person has coughed or sneezed. Any unvaccinated person can contract the virus at any age.

“If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses, or mouths, they can become infected,” the CDC wrote on its website. “Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, up to 90 percent of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.”

Furthermore, infected people can spread the virus up to four days before and after a rash appears, meaning they could be unknowingly causing others to fall ill.

Measles cases had been exceptionally uncommon in the United States due to the population’s high vaccination rate. But that’s not true in other parts of the world, including some countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

And this year alone, there have been 266 confirmed cases in Rockland County, New York, and 588 in New York City. The outbreak prompted lawmakers in the state to pass legislation ending its longtime religious exemption for vaccinations.

Other states that have seen cases: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.