BENGALURU/NEW YORK - The United States recorded 71 new measles cases last week, a 13% increase as the country faces its second-worst outbreak of the disease in almost two decades, federal health officials said on Monday.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had recorded 626 cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease in 22 states as of 19 April, the highest rate of infection in five years. The CDC had previously reported 555 cases in 20 states between 1 January and 11 April. The current outbreak will likely surpass the 2014 outbreak in a number of cases, the CDC said on Monday.More than half the cases recorded this year occurred in New York City, primarily in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn.The World Health Organisation reported last week that global cases had risen nearly four-fold in the first quarter of 2019 to 112,163 compared with the same period last year.
A vocal fringe of parents in the United States oppose vaccines believing, contrary to scientific evidence, that ingredients in them can cause autism or other disorders.