In an update on the measles outbreak in the New York City metro area, eleven additional confirmed cases of measles have been reported in the Rockland County and Brooklyn areas this past week.
In the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, five additional cases were reported in the Williamsburg neighborhood and one in Borough Park, bringing the outbreak total in the area to 73 cases since October.
In Rockland County, five additional confirmed measles cases have been reported, bringing the total to 135 since September, makin it the longest measles outbreak in the country since 2000, as Rockland County Executive Ed Day notes in a recent Facebook post:
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Enough of the political correctness! By the numbers, Rockland County has experienced the longest measles outbreak since the disease was declared “eradicated” nearly 20 years ago AND the most amount of infections. And this is a totally preventable disease! We must ensure that this type of outbreak never, ever happens again.
We have seen up close the risks and dangers of being unvaccinated. We have had to deal with the worry, fear and legitimate concerns of our citizens, especially those with infants who are to young to be immunized against this disease, one that could seriously medically impair or cause the death of that infant.
The time is long past to ensure that, absent a critical medical exemption approved by a doctor, every child entering any school must be immunized against preventable diseases. Legislation to do exactly that was recently introduced in Albany and I call upon our state legislators to carry this issue forward and on the governor to sign this legislation into law.
Concerning the vaccination status data of the Rockland County outbreak, health officials report: 81.5% have had 0 MMRs, 3.1% have had 1 MMR, 4.6% have had 2 MMRs and 10.8% unknown status.
CDC recommends all children get two doses of MMR vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12- through 15-months of age, and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age. One dose of measles vaccine is about 93% effective at preventing measles if exposed to the virus. Two doses are about 97% effective. Measles vaccine does not cause measles illness.
The CDC reports that 101 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 10 states from Jan. 1 to Feb. 7 this year. The states that have reported cases to CDC are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
372 measles cases were reported in total in 2018.
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