This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience while browsing it. By clicking 'Got It' you're accepting these terms.
Most recent
Trending
Top Videos
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
The number of measles cases in the U.S. is now the highest it has been in 25 years, according to the most recent data released by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Monday. There have so far been 704 cases reported in 22 states in 2019, with 13 outbreaks accounting for 94 percent of the cases.
"We are very concerned about the recent troubling rise in cases of measles, which was declared eliminated from our country in 2000. Vaccine-preventable diseases belong in the history books, not our emergency rooms," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told NPR.
Six of the thirteen outbreaks, representing 88 percent of measles cases, were associated with closely knit communities with lower vaccination rates, CDC said.
Thirteen outbreaks of measles have been reported in the U.S. in 2019. Close-knit communities with low vaccination rates are at risk for sustained measles outbreaks. Read about the increase in measles cases in the U.S. https://t.co/9yjDuB4lrB pic.twitter.com/Zp2YP3wdzf
— CDC (@CDCgov) April 29, 2019
Cases in two states, Washington and New York, are responsible for the majority of the new cases. The outbreak in Washington is lessening, but the outbreaks in New York are ongoing. They are concentrated in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County.
"The outbreaks in New York City and New York State are the largest and longest-lasting since measles elimination in 2000," CDC Director for Immunization Dr. Nancy Messonnier said at a news conference reported by The New York Times. "The longer this continues, the greater the chances that measles will again get a foothold in the United States."
Officials in New York City and Rockland County have moved to quell the outbreaks. In New York City, where there have been 423 cases since October 2018, officials closed seven Orthodox schools, but five have reopened after proving that they were now barring unvaccinated students from attending classes. The city has also issued 57 summonses to Williamsburg, Brooklyn residents for refusing to have themselves or their children vaccinated.
Rockland County, where there have been 202 cases, renewed an emergency declaration Thursday, USA Today reported. Rockland County Executive Ed Day initially tried to ban unvaccinated children from entering indoor public spaces, but this was blocked by the courts. The order now requires those who have measles or who have been exposed to measles in the most impacted neighborhood to stay home.
The CDC said that 503 of the 704 measles cases occurred in people who were not vaccinated. For those without immunization, measles is extremely contagious.
"A person who has measles can make other people sick four days before they get a rash. If an infected person enters a room of 10 unvaccinated people, nine of them will get measles," CDC Director Robert Redfield told NPR.
As of April 26, more than 70% of the 704 people with confirmed measles since January 1 were unvaccinated. On-time vaccination with two doses of MMR vaccine is the most effective way to limit the spread of measles virus. Read the recent @CDCMMWR: https://t.co/9yjDuB4lrB pic.twitter.com/lJmrQDBk33
— CDC (@CDCgov) April 29, 2019
So far, 66 people have been hospitalized because of the outbreak, but no one has died. One out of every 1,000 measles patients dies even with modern medical care, the CDC said, as The New York Times reported.
Messonnier said the measles vaccine was both safe and effective, but misinformation about its risks had spread in certain communities.
"We have definitely seen misinformation and myths about vaccines being sent to communities susceptible to that misinformation. And these vulnerable communities are the communities in which we're seeing these outbreaks right now," she told NPR.
"I must warn you that exposing your unvaccinated child to measles is very dangerous, and it could even be deadly." In my first @EcoWatch post today, @nycHealthy declares an emergency over the #measlesoutbreak and warns parents against "measles parties": https://t.co/dH4E6z9eZj
— Olivia Rosane (@orosane) April 10, 2019
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Carlo Ratti, Ida Auken
On the window of a bike shop in Copenhagen, a sign reads: Your next car is a bike.
By Carey Gillam
For the last five years, Chris Stevick has helped his wife Elaine in her battle against a vicious type of cancer that the couple believes was caused by Elaine's repeated use of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide around a California property the couple owned. Now the roles are reversed as Elaine must help Chris face his own cancer.
'Insect Apocalypse' Will Have Dire Con​sequences for ​All Life on Earth​, Report Warns
The last 50 years have been brutal for wildlife. Animals have lost their habitats and seen their numbers plummet. Now a new report from a British conservation group warns that habitat destruction and increased pesticide use has on a trajectory for an "insect apocalypse," which will have dire consequences for humans and all life on Earth, as The Guardian reported.
Sales of electric cars are surging and the world is generating more and more power from renewable sources, but it is not enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to stop the global climate crisis, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Trending
By Jake Johnson
A Greenpeace report released Tuesday uses a hypothetical "Smart Supermarket" that has done away with environmentally damaging single-use plastics to outline a possible future in which the world's oceans and communities are free of bags, bottles, packaging and other harmful plastic pollutants.
By Irene Banos Ruiz
Pediatricians in New Delhi, India, say children's lungs are no longer pink, but black.
Our warming planet is already impacting the health of the world's children and will shape the future of an entire generation if we fail to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (35.6°F), the 2019 Lancet Countdown Report on health and climate change shows.
Trending
The FBI is looking into how the state of Pennsylvania granted permits for a controversial natural gas pipeline as part of a corruption investigation, the AP reports.
Three cows who were washed off their North Carolina island by Hurricane Dorian have been found alive after swimming at least two miles, The New York Times reported Wednesday.