In a follow-up on the Brooklyn and Queens measles outbreak primarily involving members of the Orthodox Jewish community, New York City health officials reported an additional 45 cases in the past week.
Since October 2018, there have been 259 confirmed cases of measles in Brooklyn and Queens. New cases were reported from the neighborhoods of Williamsburg (41), Borough Park (2), Crown Heights (1) and one in Flushing, Queens.
How contagious is measles? Answer: Very
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease (in the lungs and breathing tubes) caused by a virus that is spread by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected people (when a person infected with the measles virus breathes, coughs, or sneezes).
Measles is one of the most contagious viruses on earth; one measles infected person can give the virus to 18 others. In fact, 90% of unvaccinated people exposed to the virus become infected. You can catch measles just by being in a room where a person with measles has been, up to 2 hours after that person is gone. And you can catch measles from an infected person even before they have a measles rash.
Vaccination is the best way to prevent measles. Anyone who has received two doses of a measles-containing vaccine is highly unlikely to get measles.
- Experimental universal influenza vaccine candidate, H1ssF_3928, in human trials
- Opioid epidemic feeding HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and other infectious diseases
- Typhoid cases up 65 percent in El Salvador
- Indiana University mumps: Case tally now at 6
- Michigan measles outbreak the most cases since 1991
- New South Wales: Measles strikes infants to young to be vaccinated
- Measles diagnosed in Boston area: Potential exposure in multiple locations
- New Zealand: CDHB CEO David Meates says there are 39 confirmed measles cases
- Measles cases in the US prompts AMA response
