America could be on the brink of a measles outbreak as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported 45 official cases as of March 7, with hundreds of other suspected cases in California and Arizona.
"We're going to see (measles) outbreaks any time we have an accumulation of people who haven't been vaccinated," said @CDCgov’s Cyndi Hatcher to @NPRGoatsAndSoda. #Measles must be a public health priority. Read more: https://t.co/FkQvIidtCk
— CDC Global Health (@CDCGlobal) February 9, 2024
Measles cases have grown in America for two reasons, vaccination rates in America have dropped, and the influx of unvaccinated illegal immigrants from other countries into America.
One migrant shelter in Chicago that houses 1,800 people already has five documented cases, including four adults and one child. Many fear that the number of cases will increase dramatically.
NEW: CNN reports the CDC is arriving in Chicago today to help the city with its first measles cases since 2019. Five cases have been identified in this outbreak so far, four of which are adults and children inside of a migrant shelter in the city. https://t.co/rzmWXPfHkn
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 12, 2024
The 45 cases over the first two months of 2024 are almost equal to the 58 official cases in all of 2023 and that number is expected to grow.
According to the Daily Mail, “Hundreds of people are already feared to be infected in California and Arizona after cases were confirmed in people in the states who visited local hospitals.” When added to the projected growth in the Chicago migrant shelter, cases could be in the hundreds by the end of March.
Worldwide cases are on the rise as well.
“We’re not just seeing cases, we’re seeing transmission, which means vaccine levels aren’t what we’d like them to be,” said Saskia Popescu, an assistant professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) most recent numbers, released in November, show an 18% increase in cases worldwide with a total of 9 million and a 43% increase in measles-related deaths at 136,000 in 2022.
Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases in the world, but a two-dose vaccine in childhood is said to be 97% effective. Right now, 93% of Americans are protected by the vaccine but only about 83% of the world’s children receive the first dose.
With millions of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. every year since President Joe Biden took office, it is impossible to say how many unvaccinated adults and children have entered the country. It is those without the vaccine who are the most vulnerable to get measles but they are also the most likely to pass it on to others as well.
