Infectious disease experts point to ongoing transmission chains from a West Texas outbreak that began early last year and sickened roughly 800 people. They say the spread and threat to elimination is directly related to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
A nation loses its distinction as a country where measles has been eliminated when it sees at least 12 months of sustained transmission.
South Carolina last week quarantined at least 254 people after confirming more than two dozen measles cases in the state. It’s the latest in what has been the worst year for measles in the U.S. in recent history.
“This is a very clear example of the damage that the anti-vaccine movement has done in the United States,” said Fiona Havers, adjunct associate professor at the Emory School of Medicine and a former infectious disease staffer at the CDC.
The U.S. declared measles to be eliminated in 2000, but Jan. 20 of next year will mark 12 straight months of uninterrupted measles transmission and reaching that day with continued spread looks all but certain.
Havers called this situation “extremely embarrassing” for the U.S.
Strictly speaking, a country losing its measles-elimination status is a technicality that recognizes the spread of measles has gone uninterrupted for at least one year. Regaining measles elimination requires that transmission of the current strain be interrupted for at least 12 months.
According to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, the imminent deadline isn’t as important when “we can already say the damn house is on fire.”
Eighty-eight percent of cases in the United States this year are outbreak-associated, and there have been 47 outbreaks recorded. Last year, 16 outbreaks were reported, and 69 percent of cases (198 of 285) were outbreak-associated.
