Measles is seeing a resurgence both worldwide and in the United States 24 years after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the virus was “eliminated” in America after decades of vaccination efforts.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) most recent global numbers, released in November, reveal that measles cases increased worldwide by 18 percent to about 9 million, and deaths rose 43 percent to 136,000, in 2022 compared to 2021.
Yemen’s outbreak was the most severe, with 18,464 cases recorded between July 2023 and December 2023 alone, according to the CDC, and another 13,721 recorded in Azerbaijan.
In 2019, the United States saw its measles numbers in 27 years with 1,274 people affected across 31 states, the CDC said.
Florida has seen the most measles cases in the country since Jan. 1, with 10 in at least two counties, according to the Florida Department of Health (DOH) website.
Nine cases were reported in Broward County, and one in Polk County.
The Polk patient was aged between 20 and 24, while two of the Broward cases were ages 0–4, four were ages 5–9, and three from 10–14.
Many put the blame for measles outbreaks on vaccine hesitancy.
“Measles is a huge concern and directly related to declining measles vaccination rates,” Dr. Priya Soni, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, said in a news release.
“Vaccine hesitancy, fueled during the pandemic by the anti-vaccine movement, has affected vaccination rates nationwide.
“In addition, because children were quarantined during the pandemic, many missed out on well-child visits and didn’t catch up on their vaccines. That has meant 61 million fewer doses distributed nationwide between 2020 and 2022,” she said.
Dr. Soni warns that measles is more lethal than other infectious viruses.
“The big danger with measles is that it is one of the most unpredictable infections,” she said.
“There is a very real risk of hospitalization, death, or serious damage to the immune system.
“Even after you’ve recovered from measles, your immune system can be altered for up to three years, and you become at risk for many other infections.”
The Florida DOH announced in a news release that one measles case was linked to a “travel-related case in Central Florida.”
It is not clear if that’s the person who contracted the disease in Polk County or if it’s a different case.
Florida’s numbers are among 45 measles cases reported across 17 states between Jan. 1 and March 7, according to the CDC.
The states are Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York City, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington.
The CDC reported 58 measles cases for all of 2023, a decrease from the 121 cases reported in 2022.
The majority of those cases, according to the CDC, were among people who were not vaccinated against measles.
Most were U.S. residents as well; however, many had traveled abroad to countries including Ukraine, the Philippines, Israel, Thailand, Vietnam, and Germany.
The effects of measles can be severe.
Rapid cognitive decline and severe seizures sent a 13-year-old boy to the Asan Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, roughly 11 years after he was infected with the measles virus.
The boy could no longer function socially, lost the ability to feed and dress himself, experienced muscle jerks and rigidity, and struggled to speak.
By the age of 25, the young man was bedridden and could only communicate with “babbles and facial expressions.”
He developed a rare and fatal side effect of measles known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), which attacks the central nervous system and leads to death or a vegetative state within a few years of onset.
While the boy’s reaction to measles is considered a worst-case scenario, he still received a dose of the measles vaccine when he was 12 months old.
Florida has seen pushback over its messaging on vaccines.
The state received added scrutiny over its measles cases after Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo sent a letter on Feb. 20 to parents of Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County after a cluster of cases were identified at the school.
In the letter, Dr. Ladapo gave parents of unvaccinated children the choice as to whether or not they wanted to send those students to school during the outbreak.
“Due to the high immunity rate in the community, as well as the burden on families and educational cost of healthy children missing school, DOH is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance,” Dr. Ladapo wrote.
Some criticized the Florida Surgeon General for going against CDC recommendations that call for unvaccinated children to be excluded from school activities for three weeks after a measles outbreak.
Dr. Ladapo was previously criticized for his hesitancy over the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines after drawing attention to a potential cancer risk due to nanoparticles in the vaccine’s ingredients.
Some have gone as far as blaming the surgeon general for Florida’s rise in measles cases.
However, DOH data shows Florida experienced its highest number of measles cases of the past decade during 2018 when 15 cases were reported among state residents.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Dr. Ladapo in September 2021. Florida reported no measles cases in 2021 or 2022 and just two cases in 2023—a significant drop since 2019.
The Epoch Times reached out to Dr. Ladapo for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
Dr. Ladapo responded to the measles situation in a March 8 news release.
“It’s important that public health leaders consider all available data and make decisions that promote health while respecting the rights of individuals,” he said.
Dr. Ladapo added: “I will always serve with integrity and prioritize a holistic approach to public health that tunes into the needs of Floridians—and tunes out the noise.”
Mr. DeSantis said in a news release the state has shown that “good public health policy includes personal responsibility and parents’ rights.”
“While the national medical health establishment and media have lost the public’s confidence, Florida continues to restore sanity and reason to public health and will always do so under my leadership,” he added.
As of March 8, the Florida DOH said there had been no additional cases at Manatee Bay Elementary School since Feb. 16, ending the 21-day infection period.
However, “Due to the contagiousness of measles and the rate of international travel, there is a possibility for more sporadic cases throughout Florida and the United States. Florida’s approach to managing future cases will remain the same,” the DOH wrote.
The CDC says measles was “eliminated” in the United States by 2000, largely due to the widespread vaccination program first adopted in the 1960s.
In 1963, John Enders and his colleagues developed the first measles vaccine widely used in the United States since 1968.
In 1978, the CDC set a goal to eliminate the virus by 1982, but did not achieve this for another 18 years.
While the number of reported measles cases had dropped by 80 percent in 1981 compared to 1980, there was an outbreak in 1989 among vaccinated children.
Since many of the children who contracted measles in 1989 had already received one dose of the vaccine, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) all began recommending a second dose of the vaccine for all children, resulting in a gradual decline of cases.
The CDC says that before the vaccine’s first implementation in 1963, nearly all children got measles by the time they were 15 years old.
It also estimates that three to four million people in the United States are infected with the virus each year, resulting in 400 to 500 deaths, 48,000 hospitalizations, and over 1,000 cases of brain swelling due to the virus’s side effects.
Among those in the United States who get infected with measles, about one in five require hospitalization, the CDC says.
An additional one out of 1,000 will develop brain swelling that can lead to permanent brain damage, and another one to three out of 1,000 will die from the virus due to lung or brain complications.
Measles can cause serious health complications with ear infections, diarrhea, pneumonia, and brain swelling being common side effects.
Some of the side effects are not immediate either. SSPE is a very rare but fatal disease that affects the central nervous system and doesn’t usually appear until seven to 10 years after a person contracts measles.
For the boy from South Korea, it took him 11 years to develop SSPE after he was initially infected with measles when he was 2 years old.
The study authors withheld his name and year of transmission to protect his family’s privacy.
SSPE occurs even after a person seems to have fully recovered from measles and affected seven to 11 out of every 100,000 measles cases between 1989 and 1991 in the United States, according to the CDC.
The agency says “measles is very contagious,” spreading through the air whenever an infected person coughs or sneezes.
The virus is considered so contagious that a single person could affect up to nine out of 10 people around them if those people are not protected or vaccinated.
By comparison, a single person with the flu, or influenza, will likely spread the virus to one or two additional people, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
The CDC further explains the risks of contact with the measles virus.
“Your child can get measles just by being in a room where a person with measles has been, even up to two hours after that person has left.
“An infected person can spread measles to others even before knowing he/she has the disease—from four days before developing the measles rash through four days afterward,” the CDC says.
Measles can also lead to pregnancy complications for women who get infected, sometimes resulting in premature births or low birth weights among babies.
The CDC says the first symptoms of measles occur seven to 14 days after infection, including high fever, coughing, runny nose and sinuses, and red, watery eyes, known as conjunctivitis.
The host will start to get tiny white spots, known as koplik spots, two to three days after their initial symptoms begin. Within three to five days of the initial symptoms, the infected person will start to get the first measles rash.
The rash typically starts as flat red spots on a person’s face near the hairline before spreading to the neck, torso, arms, legs, and feet.
There may also be raised bumps on top of the flat red spots, which can also merge as the rash spreads from the head to the rest of the person’s body.
After the measles rash appears, a person’s fever can reach as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit.