Measles should have been forgotten a long time ago. Why are cases rising in the US?

For decades, measles was a disease rarely seen in the U.S., but now it is on the rise again, and the U.S. is at risk of losing its “elimination status,” officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in a statement. report On thursday. Rates of the highly contagious infection began rising in 2019, but a third of new cases identified over the past four years were detected in just the first three months of 2024, the CDC said. It’s a trend that worries health officials, and measles isn’t the only disease from the past that’s cropping up again.

Tuberculosis cases in the US will reach their highest level in a decade in 2023, and this year infections have appeared in schools in Pennsylvania It is Las Vegas, and the increases caused alarm in Chicago and California. Poliomyelitis, a virus that can cause paralysis in its most severe form and which was once one of the most feared diseases in the country, it was also detected in Rockland County, New York, in 2023, for the first time in 10 years.

So what’s behind this resurgence and where is it happening? Infectious disease experts explain.

Where are measles cases increasing?

Measles reached the more attention after emerging on both coasts in a matter of weeks and affecting a total of 121 people so far this year. According to CDCMeasles cases have been reported in 17 states so far in 2024: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.

Many cases are linked to places where people who may not have been vaccinated are in close contact with each other or to international travel. Chicago has had 61 cases in 2024 since the virus began spreading in a migrant shelter. Georgia confirmed its third case in 2024 on Thursday after an unvaccinated person who recently traveled abroad tested positive. Visits to Florida resulted in cases in at least three additional states — Indiana, Louisiana and Ohio — according to documents obtained by CBS News at the end of March. In January, public health officials in Virginia warned about possible exposure to measles after a person with the disease traveled through Dulles International Airport on January 3 and Ronald Reagan National Airport on January 4.

Schools, daycare centers, and family gatherings are also vulnerable to the spread of measles. Nine people in the Philadelphia area have tested positive for measles after a outbreak began at a day care center in late December 2023. On January 10, health officials in Washington state appealed to health care providers be aware of measles symptoms after six people contracted the disease at a family gathering.

The CDC also issued a Notice to health care providers about the rise in measles cases in the U.S. and around the world and laboratories alerted be careful when testing and analyzing samples from people with symptoms.

What’s going on here?

Not surprisingly, a lot of this has to do with not getting vaccinated, Dr. an infectious disease expert and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told Yahoo Life. “There are some parents who have stopped their children from getting vaccinated,” he says. “It was vaccines that eliminated these diseases. If you prevent children from vaccinating, you will create pockets of susceptibility.” (Worth noting: the U.S. currently does not vaccinate against tuberculosisgiven the low risk of exposure.)

About 95% of people need to be vaccinated against measles to prevent it from coming back. In 2022 (the latest data available), 83% of people have received one dose of the measles vaccine, down from 86% in 2019, the CDC said.

“As a whole, vaccination rates in this country have fallen,” Dr Thomas Russo, professor and infectious disease specialist at the University at Buffalo in New York, told Yahoo Life. “In part, this is due to the anti-vaccination movement, but some people have missed doses during the pandemic.”

People are also traveling again after the pandemic, including to areas of the world where measles and other diseases are more common than in the U.S., bringing them back when they return, says Russo.

Many have forgotten what these diseases are like and don’t feel the urgency to protect themselves or their families against them, Schaffner points out. “When these diseases are reintroduced into our population, there is always a big surprise at how quickly they spread and how sick they can make people,” he says. “This historical information was not passed on because we haven’t had these diseases in years.”

How dangerous are these outbreaks?

Dr. William A. Petri, an infectious disease expert at UVA Health, told Yahoo Life that cases of these diseases still remain low in the US. “Measles remains uncommon in the US – fewer than 100 cases per year on average,” he says. Petri also highlights that there was a “modest” increase in tuberculosis cases in the USA in 2022.

But people who contract these diseases can become very sick. “Today’s parents of young children do not have a clear understanding of the seriousness of these illnesses and trivialize them,” says Schaffner.

Measles is considered one of the most contagious diseases, Russo notes, facilitating rapid spread among unvaccinated people. “Some of these diseases are potentially lethal,” he says. “Polio is much less common than measles, but can have significant consequences, such as paralysis.” Tuberculosis can cause a cough that lasts more than three weeks, coughing up blood and fever, and can be fatal if not treated properly, according to the CDC.

“These are childhood diseases that we kept under control and that are now coming back,” says Russo.

When to get vaccinated

Tuberculosis vaccines are only recommended under select circumstances in the U.S. But polio and measles vaccines are part of routine childhood vaccinations, Petri says.

If you are an adult who has not been vaccinated against these diseases, doctors recommend changing that. “Your primary care doctor or health department can give you these vaccines,” says Petri. Your doctor cannot keep you on the MMR vaccine (which fights measles, mumps and rubella) or the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). in stock so it’s worth calling ahead to find out if they can be ordered for you.

“It’s not too late to get these vaccines as adults,” says Schaffner. Russo agrees, adding: “The consequences of these diseases can be even more serious in adults than in children.”