United States: Some part of the United States is now having largest measles outbreak in over three decades. Measles cases are increasing this year in the U. S., and almost thirty percent of these cases occur in the three months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current outbreak in Oregon began in the middle of June and so far has infected 31 patients; while in the previous outbreak in 2019, there were 28 cases of infections.
Impact of Vaccination Rates
As reported by USA Today, Health experts also attribute the reappearance of the disease to the falling rate of the children who are getting measles, mumps and the rubella vaccinations and they have noted that the outbreaks are mostly confined to the pockets of the population where the young people have not been vaccinated.
“This disease is one of the most communicable diseases possible, and to end it, one only has to look at very high immunization levels that could be as high as 95%,” said Paul Cieslak a physician in communicable diseases and immunizations at the Oregon Health Authority Public Health Division. Full vaccination with two doses of the vaccine can give lifelong immunity which is estimated to be at 97% of the people who receive the vaccine. ”
Oregon 2024 measles outbreak
During the outbreak, all the people infected were having a negative response to the vaccines as stated by Oregon Health Authority. ,according to the authorities, it involved two people who had to be admitted to a nearby hospital. The outbreak is the largest reported in Oregon to date, after measles was declared to have been eliminated in the United States in 2000.
Measles outbreak is also of the highest ranking in Oregon that belongs to 13 outbreaks occurred in 2024 in the United States. By Tuesday, the CDC counted 236 U. S. cases of the disease in a little over eight months this year, while there were only 58 cases in the whole of 2023.
Current Situation and Statistics
The 87 per cent of all cases across the U. S. this year were among people who had not received the vaccine, or whose vaccination status was unknown.
In Florida, an outbreak was reported early this year in the students of an elementary school while in Chicago, the migrant shelter. O
Oregon is one of the states that have reported a high incidence of measles and the only state with a higher incidence of measles than Oregon are Illinois and Minnesota. There were sixties seven from Illinois, and forty one from Minnesota while Oregon had only thirty one. The state of Illinois in particular called off its outbreak that had started in March in early June. Still, the directors of health in Oregon anticipate that the eruption of the pandemic in the state will persist.
“We do not have enough vaccinated people to cut the chain of transmission and so it continues,” Cieslak said in a media briefing on August 8.