‘Measles is only a plane flight away’: As outbreak surges, experts warn against global health funding cuts
CNN
Although measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, it still rages on in many parts of the world. With decreasing vaccination rates across the US, experts say, imported cases can have large consequences.
After returning home from a trip abroad last week, an infant in Houston was hospitalized with measles. In Lamoille County, Vermont, this month, a child became sick with measles after returning from foreign travel. The same thing happened to an adult in Oakland County, Michigan, whose vaccination status was unknown. Although measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, it still rages on in many parts of the world. With decreasing vaccination rates across the US, experts say, imported cases can have large consequences. “Each one of those imported cases now is like a match being thrown into a bit of forest,” said Dr. Brian Ward, associate director of the JD MacLean Tropical Disease Center at McGill University. “The susceptible people in our communities now are like that accumulating fuel in a forest.” Often, these illnesses happen “because a US resident goes outside of the US and is exposed and brings measles back. And I think that’s something that’s been happening for a while, and we’re certainly seeing … an upward trend in the last couple of years,” said Dr. Matthew Ferrari, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State University.
