In a second import event, South Carolina residents visited public places while contagious. As a result, four residents with close contact with the South Carolina visitors became ill. Despite being contagious, the four residents visited schools, health care facilities and a church. Nine of their contacts and one person exposed in a public place became ill, bringing a total of 14 cases spread between January 15 and February 17.
In the third importation event, two state residents returned from South Carolina and became ill on January 15 and 16. No additional cases have been linked to these residents. Similarly, a fourth import event occurred when a resident returned from a trip. The person has complied with isolation and quarantine recommendations, and no cases have been linked to this.
In the fifth importation event, a Washington State resident returned from out-of-state travel where he had contact with sick contacts and became ill himself on January 19. Although they are contagious, they visited a school and a health facility. Six close contacts became ill. In total, this cluster of seven cases occurred from January 19 to 29. The genome sequences of five of the cases were nearly identical to those seen in South Carolina.
Officials credit the basic public health work of quarantines, isolation and contact tracing with preventing the virus from spreading further than it did.
Contradict Kennedy
While the study highlights the ease with which this virus can spread between states amid declining vaccination, it also contradicts a common talking point of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaxxer advocate, has downplayed the current rise in measles in the United States and aggressively defended himself against suggestions that his decades of anti-vaccine misinformation and misinformation contributed to the rise in cases and decline in vaccination.
Instead, Kennedy claims that there is a “global epidemic” and that the United States is “doing a better job than any other country in the world at controlling the measles epidemic.” Both statements are false. Dozens of other countries have lower case rates than the United States. Although some countries, including neighboring Canada and Mexico, are also seeing sharp increases in cases, the sharp increase in cases in the United States is not due to international imports, but to domestic spread in undervaccinated communities.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 18 of the country’s 4,588 confirmed measles cases this year have been reported among international visitors. Of all cases, 4,404 (96%) are linked to a national outbreak. The United States has recorded 43 new outbreaks this year.
Gn Health
