Measles Cases Top 53 In California, Over 1K Nationwide

The number of measles cases in America is 1,044 across 28 states, according to the latest figures from federal health officials. That includes 53 in California.

The country saw 22 more cases of measles compared to the previous week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The overall number is the most in the country since health officials declared measles eliminated 19 years ago, and nearly three times as many cases as there were all of last year.

California public health officials say four outbreaks linked to patients with international travel have been reported thus far in 2019. As of Thursday, the 53 confirmed measles cases reported in California included 33 outbreak-associated cases: three completed outbreaks involving 12 total cases in the Sacramento, San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles regions; and one ongoing Northern California outbreak involving 21 cases.

The measles —rubeola — 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.

The last large outbreak of measles in California was associated with Disneyland. From December 2014 through April 2015, at least 131 California residents were infected with measles; the outbreak also infected residents of six other states, Mexico and Canada, according to CDPH.

The 28 states that have seen cases in the 2019 U.S. measles outbreak: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.