70 People Now Infected in U.S. Measles Outbreak

By Tara Haelle

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Jan. 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- The number of people infected with measles linked to the outbreak at Disney amusement parks in Southern California now stands at 70, health officials reported Thursday.

The overwhelming majority of cases -- 62 -- have been reported in California, and most of those people hadn't gotten the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine, the Associated Press reported.

Public health officials are urging people who haven't been vaccinated against measles to avoid the Disney parks where the outbreak originated. California state epidemiologist Gil Chavez also urged the unvaccinated to avoid places with lots of international travelers, such as airports.

"Patient zero" -- or the source of the initial infections -- was probably either a resident of a country where measles is widespread or a Californian who traveled abroad and brought the virus back to the United States, the AP reported.

The outbreak is occurring 15 years after measles was declared eliminated in the United States. But the new outbreak illustrates how quickly a resurgence of the disease can occur.

And health experts explain the California outbreak simply.

"This outbreak is occurring because a critical number of people are choosing not to vaccinate their children," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Division of Infectious Diseases.

"Parents are not scared of the disease" because they've never seen it, Offit said. "And, to a lesser extent, they have these unfounded concerns about vaccines. But the big reason is they don't fear the disease."

On Friday, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that all parents vaccinate their children against measles.

"Vaccines are one of the most important ways parents can protect their children from very real diseases that exist in our world," Dr. Errol Alden, the academy's executive director and CEO, said in a news release. "The measles vaccine is safe and effective."

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, vice chair of the academy's Committee on Infectious Diseases, said: "Delaying vaccination leaves children vulnerable to measles when it is most dangerous to their development, and it also affects the entire community. We see measles spreading most rapidly in communities with higher rates of delayed or missed vaccinations. Declining vaccination for your child puts other children at risk, including infants who are too young to be vaccinated, and children who are especially vulnerable due to certain medications they're taking."

The United States declared measles eliminated from the country in 2000. This meant the disease was no longer native to the United States. The country was able to eliminate measles because of effective vaccination programs and a strong public health system for detecting and responding to measles cases and outbreaks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But in the intervening years, a small but growing number of parents have chosen not to have their children vaccinated, due largely to what infectious-disease experts call mistaken fears about childhood vaccines.

Researchers have found that past outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases are more likely in places where there are clusters of parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated, said Saad Omer, an associate professor of global health, epidemiology and pediatrics at Emory University School of Public Health and Emory Vaccine Center, in Atlanta.

These so-called "vaccine refusals" refer to exemptions to school immunization requirements that parents can obtain on the basis of their personal or religious beliefs.

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