CDC: 132 measles cases reported in 15 states, including Ga.

[sharon sanders]

ajc.com > Health
CDC: 132 measles cases reported in 15 states, including Ga.
Numbers attributed to international travel and unvaccinated people

By ALISON YOUNG
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/15/08An Atlanta-area man contracted the first case of measles reported in Georgia since 2004, part of an increasing number of infections across the country, health officials said Tuesday.
The man became sick in May after traveling to Pakistan in late April, said Taka Wiley, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Division of Public Health. He recovered and nobody exposed to him has caught the highly contagious disease, she said.


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[Shiloh]

Re: CDC: 132 measles cases reported in 15 states, including Ga.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gepLZM_xC1uU_O0mMzBMiqpMFWngD92MPCUG1

Jump in measles outbreaks worries health officials
By MIKE STOBBE ?

ATLANTA (AP) ? The number of measles cases in the U.S. is at its highest level since 1997, and nearly half of those involve children whose parents rejected vaccination, government health officials reported Thursday.

The number of cases is still small, just 131, but that's just for the first seven months of the year and doctors are troubled by the trend. There were only 42 cases for all of last year.

"We're seeing a lot more spread. That is concerning to us," said Dr. Jane Seward, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pediatricians are frustrated, saying they are having to spend more time convincing parents the shot is safe.

"This year, we certainly have had parents asking more questions," said Dr. Ari Brown, an Austin, Texas, physician who is a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The CDC's review found that a number of cases involved home-schooled children not required to have the vaccines.

Measles, best known for a red skin rash, is a potentially deadly, highly infectious virus that spreads through contact with a sneezing, coughing, infected person.

It is no longer endemic to the United States, but every year some Americans pick it up while traveling abroad and bring it home. Measles epidemics have exploded in Israel, Switzerland and some other countries. But high U.S. childhood vaccination rates have prevented major outbreaks here.

In a typical year, only one outbreak occurs in the United States, infecting perhaps 10 to 20 people. So far this year through July 30 the country has seen seven outbreaks, including one in Illinois with 30 cases, said Seward, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Viral Diseases.

None of the 131 patients died, but 15 were hospitalized.

Childhood vaccination rates for measles continue to exceed 92 percent, but outbreak pockets seem to be forming, health officials said.

Of this year's total, 122 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. Some were unvaccinated because the children were under age 1, making them too young to get their first measles shot.

In 63 of those cases ? almost all of them 19 or younger ? the patient or their parents refused vaccination, the CDC reported.

In Washington state, an outbreak was traced to a religious conference, including 16 school-aged children who were not vaccinated because of parents' beliefs. Eleven of those kids were home schooled and not subject to vaccination rules in public schools.

The Illinois outbreak ? triggered by a teenager who had traveled to Italy ? included 25 home-schooled children, according to the CDC report.

The nation once routinely saw hundreds of thousands of measles cases each year, and hundreds of deaths. But immunization campaigns were credited with dramatically reducing the numbers. The last time health officials saw this many cases was 1997, when 138 were reported. Last year, there were only 42 U.S. cases.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has made educating parents about the safety of vaccines one of its top priorities this year, in part because busy doctors have grown frustrated at the amount of time they've been spending answering parents' questions about things they read on the Internet or heard from TV talk shows.

In June, the CDC interviewed 33 physicians in Austin, suburban Seattle and Hollywood, Fla., about childhood vaccinations. Several complained about patient backlogs caused by parents stirred up by information of dubious scientific merit, according to the CDC report.

Questions commonly center on autism and the fear it can be caused by the mercury-based preservative that used to be in most vaccines. Since 2001, the preservative has been removed from shots recommended for young children.

Brown said she wrote a 16-page, single-spaced document for parents that explains childhood vaccinations and why doctors do not believe they cause autism. She began handing it out this spring, and thinks it's been a help to parents and a time-saver for her.

"People want that level of information," she said.
On the Net:

* The CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: CDC: 132 measles cases reported in 15 states, including Ga.

Most U. S. Measles Cases Reported since 1996

Many Unvaccinated because of Philosophical Beliefs

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--> More measles cases have been reported in the United States since Jan. 1, 2008 than during the same period in any year since 1996, according to a report released today by he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Between January 1 and July 31, 2008, 131 cases were reported to CDC′s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). At least fifteen patients, including four children younger than 15 months of age, were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.
In the decade before the measles vaccination program began, an estimated 3�4 million persons in the United States were infected each year. Of these, 400�500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and another 1,000 developed chronic disability from measles encephalitis.
?Measles can be a severe, life-threatening illness? said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of NCIRD. ?These cases and outbreaks serve as a reminder that measles can and still does occur in the United States.?
Of the 131 patients, 112 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. Among the 112 unvaccinated U.S. residents with measles, 16 were younger than 12 months of age and too young for vaccination, and one had presumed evidence of measles immunity because the person was born before 1957.
Of the 95 patients eligible for vaccination, 63 were unvaccinated because of their or their parents′ philosophical or religious beliefs.
Although immunization coverage rates for measles vaccine remain high, unvaccinated persons are at risk for measles, and sizeable measles outbreaks can occur in communities with a high number of unvaccinated persons.
Measles is consistently one of the first diseases to reappear when immunization coverage rates fall. Increases in the proportion of the population declining vaccination for themselves or their children might lead to large-scale outbreaks in the U.S. Currently, Israel and a number of countries in Europe -- including Switzerland, Austria, Italy, United Kingdom -- are reporting sizeable measles outbreaks among populations refusing vaccination.
?These cases resulted primarily from failure to vaccinate, many because of philosophical or religious belief,? said Dr. Schuchat. ?The vaccine against measles is highly effective in preventing infections, and high immunization levels in the community are effective at preventing or drastically decreasing the size of outbreaks.?
Reports include cases from Illinois (32 cases), New York (27), Washington (19), Arizona (14), California (14), Wisconsin (7), Michigan (4), Hawaii (5), Arkansas (2), and Washington, D.C., and Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Virginia (1 each).
Nine of the importations were in U.S. residents who had traveled abroad, and 8 were in foreign visitors. An additional 99 of the 131 cases had evidence of importation or were epidemiologically linked to importations. These import-related cases have largely occurred among school-aged children who are eligible for vaccination but whose parents have chosen not to vaccinate them. The source of 15 cases could not be determined.
Of the 131 cases, 17 were importations from the following countries: Switzerland (3), Italy (3), Israel (2), Belgium (2), India (2), Germany (1), The People′s Republic of China (1), Pakistan (1), The Russian Federation (1) and the Philippines (1).
There were 55 cases of measles reported during 2006; 66 cases during 2005; 37 cases during 2004; 56 cases during 2003; and 44 cases during 2002.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES​