Few expected a major return of measles to the United States this year, a quarter-century after it was declared eliminated here.
But return it has, with more than 1,300 confirmed cases this year and three deaths. Public health officials say they have seen nothing like it since the winter of 1990 to 1991 ….
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The epidemic today has not so far approached that of 1990 and 1991. Before that epidemic was over, there were about 55,000 cases nationwide and 132 suspected deaths. It was the worst outbreak since a vaccine was licensed 1963 ….
But public health experts are deeply concerned. The number of measles cases is the most since 1992, when, as the epidemic waned from its peak, there were 2,200 cases.
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They fear what is to come. Even as Texas health authorities declared an end to the West Texas measles outbreak …, they warned of “ongoing outbreaks of measles in North America and around the world,” and forecast additional cases in Texas.
Experts say some of the same forces seen in the early ’90s are driving the spread of this preventable disease.
