Measles Infections in U.S. Up This Year

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting
that the number of measles cases so far this year are running three
times higher than the recent average. As USA Today

reports:

The USA is experiencing a spike in measles, with 175 confirmed
cases and 20 hospitalizations so far this year, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s about three times the usual number of cases of measles,
CDC Director Thomas Frieden said Thursday. The USA has seen nine
outbreaks this year, with the largest in New York, North Carolina
and Texas.

More than 98% of measles patients were unvaccinated, Frieden
said.

“This isn’t the failure of a vaccine; it’s the failure to
vaccinate,” Frieden said….

The country’s safety net has become more porous in recent years,
as like-minded parents who refuse vaccines have clustered in the
same communities.

In August, for example, a visitor who had traveled abroad
infected 15 people at a Texas megachurch. One of those infected was
a 4-month-old baby, too young to have received a first measles
shot.

For more background see my article, “Refusing
Vaccinations Puts Others At Risk.”