Measles hits 20 year high in US, 'driven by unvaccinated people'

Measles cases have soared to a 20-year high in the US, with 288 cases reported since the beginning of the year — the most in a five-month period since 1994. Though measles was declared to be eliminated from the US in 2000, importation of the disease has continued, and in all cases this year where the source of infection could be determined, it was seen as stemming from international travel.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pins the striking rise in measles cases on unvaccinated people, who make up at least 69 percent of the reported cases. (In 20 percent of cases, the person's vaccination status was unknown. In only 10 percent of cases was the person actually known to be vaccinated.) Some of the unvaccinated people were too young to receive vaccination or said that they had missed opportunities to be vaccinated. But the vast majority, 85 percent, had refrained from vaccination because of religious, philosophical, or personal objections.

"The current increase in measles cases is being driven by unvaccinated people, primarily US residents, who got measles in other countries, brought the virus back to the United States and spread to others in communities where many people are not vaccinated," assistant surgeon general Anne Schuchat says in a statement.

Though measles is reaching a relative peak in the US, it's still far lower in the United States than elsewhere across the globe. There's estimated to be around 20 million annual measles cases worldwide and about 122,000 deaths stemming from it.

Still, the rise in the United States is sharp. The CDC reported that measles cases had spiked in 2013 too, and 2013 saw only 175 confirmed cases in total by early December. In that report too, the CDC said a failure to vaccinate was the issue, with 98 percent of cases being in unvaccinated patients.

Elsewhere in the world, widely disproven concerns that vaccines are linked to autism are said to have been the cause of measles outbreaks. At least one isolated instance of this led to a small outbreak in Texas last year, though the CDC doesn't break down the exact reasons why measles patients turned down vaccination.

Chrissy wrote:Driven by illegals

Yep you can't help stupidity

ApologyAndTea wrote:

Chrissy wrote:Driven by illegals

Yep you can't help stupidity

jenny mccarthy and jake cutler's dumb wife are illegals? good to know.

ApologyAndTea wrote:

Chrissy wrote:Driven by illegals

Yep you can't help stupidity

jenny mccarthy and jake cutler's dumb wife are illegals? good to know.

Chrissy wrote:
Contagious diseases are entering the United States because of immigrants, illegal aliens, refugees and travelers, and World Health Organization officials say the worst could be yet to come.

In addition to a list of imported diseases that includes tuberculosis, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis B, measles and the potentially deadly parasitic disease Chagas, officials fear what could happen if the avian flu, which is flourishing among poultry in Southeast Asia, mutates so that it is capable of human-to-human transmission through casual contact.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/feb/12/20050212-112200-6485r/#ixzz33G9AumOK

BirdyBack wrote:

Chrissy wrote:
Contagious diseases are entering the United States because of immigrants, illegal aliens, refugees and travelers, and World Health Organization officials say the worst could be yet to come.

In addition to a list of imported diseases that includes tuberculosis, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis B, measles and the potentially deadly parasitic disease Chagas, officials fear what could happen if the avian flu, which is flourishing among poultry in Southeast Asia, mutates so that it is capable of human-to-human transmission through casual contact.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/feb/12/20050212-112200-6485r/#ixzz33G9AumOK

The biggest surprise:  

"The pediatrician noted that many of the imported measles cases have come from Japan, Germany and Italy. Those developed nations “have not been as aggressive about measles immunization” as some other countries, he said."

That article is from 2005.  I'm not finding anything more current.  I have to point out, though, that even an American traveling to another country and back can bring a contagious disease home with him.  As a rule, immigrants have to prove that they are healthy before they are permitted to stay in the US.

BirdyBack wrote:The very first post addressed the comeback of measles in the U.S.  

"The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pins the striking rise in measles cases on unvaccinated people, who make up at least 69 percent of the reported cases."

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/29/5761580/measles-cases-hit-20-year-high-in-us

You have to consider how many people home school their children, thereby avoiding that "mandatory" MMR.  You also have to consider that over the past 3 decades, many diseases have become more resistant to antibiotics.  That has more to do with overuse of antibiotics.  TB is now particularly difficult to treat because it has become resistant to the treatment protocol that has been used for decades.