New Vaccines in the Pipeline 2020

Measles Outbreak Map Reveals Where Cases Are Spiking

Cases of measles have been recorded in at least 18 U.S. Jurisdictions since the start of the year, as health officials battle to contain further spread of the disease.

As of April 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recorded a total of 121 measles cases across the U.S. In Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York City, New York State, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.

While most of these jurisdictions have only recorded a small number of cases (between one and nine), larger outbreaks have been seen in Florida (between 10 and 19) and in Illinois (50 to 99).

One of the worst-affected areas this year has been Chicago, where 61 cases have been recorded so far, with 54 percent of these cases in those aged under four years, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Since the Chicago outbreak was detected in early March, the average number of daily measles vaccines administered has increased sharply from an average of below 200 to a peak of 725 in late March and a consistent average well above 300.

A cluster of cases was also recorded in Florida, with seven cases detected among students at Manatee Bay Elementary in Weston in February.

A CDC report published last week revealed that the number of cases reported in the first quarter of 2024 represented a 17-fold increase on the mean number of cases reported during the same period from 2020 to 2023.

The report added that the "rapid increase in the number of reported measles cases during the first quarter of 2024 represents a renewed threat to elimination."

The disease was officially eliminated in the U.S. In 2000, meaning that it is no longer constantly present and only appears when someone contracts the disease abroad and returns to the country.

In 2024, there have been a total of seven outbreaks across the U.S. (defined as three or more related cases), and 71 percent of cases (86 out of 121) are outbreak-associated. In comparison, there were only four outbreaks in 2023, and 48 percent of cases were outbreak-associated.

A measles vaccination is administered in Florida in 2019. Vaccination coverage among U.S. Children in kindergarten has decreased from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1 percent in 2022-2023. A measles vaccination is administered in Florida in 2019. Vaccination coverage among U.S. Children in kindergarten has decreased from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1 percent in 2022-2023. Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The worst-affected age-group is those aged under five, representing 47 percent of cases. In comparison, the 5-19 years age group represents 22 percent of cases and the 20 years-plus age group represents 31 percent of cases.

The CDC also noted that 82 percent of cases have been detected in the unvaccinated or those whose vaccination status was unknown. It also warned that the vaccination coverage among U.S. Children in kindergarten has decreased from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1 percent in 2022-2023, leaving around 250,000 children at risk.

Measles is a contagious respiratory infection that causes a rash and fever, and can lead to pneumonia and other complications. Symptoms include high fever, rash, cough, runny nose and red eyes.

It spreads through the air via coughs or sneezes. A non-immune individual can contract the infection up to two hours after an infected person was in the same room. Infected individuals can also spread measles four days before a rash ever appears, and four days after it does appear.

The CDC told Newsweek that while importations of measles cases into the U.S. Are expected to continue, the risk from measles "for the majority of the population would still remain low... Because most people in the U.S. Are vaccinated."

It added: "If measles re-establishes itself by having ongoing circulation, the U.S. Will lose its elimination status. CDC defines measles elimination as the absence of continuous disease transmission for 12 months or more in a specific geographic area.

"Even though we still have measles cases in the U.S., the majority of cases can be linked back to travelers who become infected with measles in other countries."

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Map Shows How Bird Flu Is Spreading Across US - As Only Two States Escape Outbreak

Outbreaks of the contagious illness were first reported in the US in late 2021 but have now spread to nearly every corner of the country - resulting in millions of animal deaths

Only two states have so far managed to avoid full-scale avian flu outbreaks. (

Image: Getty Images)

A new map shows how bird flu cases in the US are spreading rapidly – with only two states escaping the infectious disease.

The recently produced graphic, published by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), worryingly reveals how the nation has been severely hit by a wave of the deadly airborne illness. The health agency estimates that more than 82million birds have now been infected with a variant of avian influenza currently circulating in the wild - with their records showing there have been 1,116 outbreaks across 48 states.

Only Hawaii and Louisiana are yet to see outbreaks. The first case of the extremely contagious H5N1 strain of bird flu was observed in the US in late 2021.

READ MORE: Bird flu symptom confused with common illness as CDC warns of risk for infection

The worrying spread of brid flu in US has been laid bare by a newly published outbreak map from the CDC (

Image:

CDC)

If you can't see the map, click here.

Since then, it has emerged in both wild fowl and domestic poultry - leading to a devastating loss of animals across the country. The CDC states how infected birds can spread avian influenza by letting others come into contact with their saliva, nasal secretions or faeces. Once the virus enters a flock, it will then spread rapidly among the animals.

However, more disturbingly, in March this year, the disease was found in dairy cattle in Texas. And following the discovery, a farm worker tested positive for the illness, which is believed to be the first recorded instance of bird flu jumping from the livestock to humans.

A statement on the CDC's website read: "On April 1, 2024, Texas reported a human infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus (H5N1 bird flu) after confirmation by CDC. This is the first time this virus has been found in a cow and the second human case of H5N1 bird flu reported in the United States. There was a previous case in 2022 in Colorado in a poultry worker.

Those working in the poultry farming sector have been hard hit by the outbreak. (

Image:

Star Tribune via Getty Images)

For all the latest on news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to The Mirror US.

"The person in Texas with H5N1 bird flu who had exposure to presumably infected cows reported eye redness, or conjunctivitis, as their only symptom and is recovering. Human infections with H5N1 bird flu are rare, but they do happen, most often after unprotected exposure to infected birds when enough virus gets into a person's eyes, nose, or mouth, or is inhaled, or when a person touches something that has the virus on it and then touches their mouth, eyes, or nose.

"The case in Texas would be the first known instance of a person getting bird flu from a cow. It's not clear at this time exactly how the person in Texas became infected."

The CDC says the best way to prevent the spread of avian flu is to avoid exposure to any birds that are showing signs of infection from the disease. They suggest those who work around birds take precautions, such as wearing masks and gloves if they have to handle sick animals and washing hands thoroughly following any contact.

They also suggest that those who keep birds at home as pets should ensure they have robust "biosecurity measures" so their poultry do not come into contact with wild animals.

You Can't Blame Everything On Covid-19

Measles has made an unwelcome return to the U.S., with dozens of children across multiple states having caught the highly contagious viral disease so far this year. There are several reasons why measles has become a larger problem both here and worldwide as of late, but there's one commonly speculated suspect for its resurgence that simply isn't to blame: covid-19.

Working on Guy's Ritchie's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

As of early April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 113 measles cases detected in 18 states, with the most reported in Illinois. Two-thirds of the cases have involved children, and half involve children under the age of 5. No deaths have been reported, but 65 people have been hospitalized for isolation or to manage complications of the infection, including 37 children under 5.

Measles was locally eliminated in the U.S in 2000, meaning that cases of measles seen in the country today usually originate from somewhere else. But outbreaks can and do sometimes spread here. Some of the seven ongoing outbreaks in the U.S. Date back to late last year, but the tally of cases is already double the toll reported in 2023 and is on track to be the most seen in a year since 2019, which saw over 1,200 cases.

If you browse social media posts discussing these outbreaks, it won't take long to see people point to covid-19 as a culprit. Some people argue that, since covid is known to weaken people's immune systems, it must have provided fertile ground for measles to emerge once again. It isn't just measles either—similar arguments have been made to explain the recent uptick of tuberculosis or unusual outbreaks of disease, like the clusters of severe pediatric hepatitis cases that occurred across several countries in 2022. And some people have even gone as far as to nickname covid "airborne AIDS"—invoking the well-known effects of an untreated HIV infection in causing other opportunistic infections.

Some of the many social media comments speculating about a link between measles and covid-19.Screenshot: Ed Cara via Twitter/X

The biggest problem with this hypothesis, at least for measles specifically, is that there isn't really a need to come up with a special explanation for its return. The measles virus can spread incredibly well between people who haven't been exposed to it previously. So as long as there are large enough pockets of people not immune to measles in a community, it will always have the chance to cause wildfires of disease once given the opportunity. Measles also remains endemic in many parts of the world, so there's no shortage of sources for new outbreaks.

"There were measles outbreaks among unvaccinated people long before covid-19," Emily Smith, an epidemiologist specializing in infectious diseases at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, said in an email to Gizmodo.

All states mandate vaccination against measles and other once-common germs before children enter the public school system. And while the national rate of childhood measles vaccination is still high—93.1% in the 2022-2023 school year—it's recently dipped below the 95% threshold that experts say is needed to ensure limited spread in a community (a concept known as herd immunity). Some regions of the U.S. Have even lower vaccination rates, giving measles that much more room to spread if it's ever introduced there.

There's nothing strange going on with these latest outbreaks, immunity-wise. According to the CDC, 83% of cases have involved people who were either unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, while another 12% of cases involved people who only received one of the two vaccine shots needed for measles. Measles vaccination is highly effective and long-lived (upwards of 99% protection with the full two shots), but it isn't completely foolproof, so the occasional case in vaccinated people can occur, especially if the virus is allowed to circulate in a community long enough.

The other stumbling block here is that there's simply not much supporting the idea that covid is eroding our defenses to other germs on a widespread level.

"There's no evidence that covid—or the vaccine—is adversely affecting people's immune systems," Richard Rupp, a pediatrician and the director of clinical research at the University of Texas Medical Branch's Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences, told Gizmodo. "Measles has always been worrisome. I think people have this image of measles as just red spots on the face, or someone being a sad sack sitting there with it. But no, it's always been a bad disease."

Life-threatening cases of acute covid are known to wreak havoc on the immune system, and they can raise a person's risk of catching other germs at the same time, though this is true of any severe infection. Some people can also experience lingering symptoms after their initial covid infection (including mild ones), a condition known as long covid. And there is evidence suggesting that at least a subset of long covid cases could be tied to ongoing, harmful changes in the immune system triggered by the infection.

But even these changes seem to be examples of immune dysregulation and overactivation, not the sort of long-term immune deficiency that could make someone more susceptible to other infections (something that does happen with HIV). On a population level, there is no data showing that rates of known opportunistic infections have exploded the way you would expect if covid was weakening everyone's immune systems. And much like these latest measles outbreaks, covid is hardly needed to explain every mysterious cluster of illness that shows up. The strange wave of severe child hepatitis cases that occurred in 2022, for instance? It now appears to have been caused by a previously unknown interaction between a common virus and a rare genetic vulnerability to severe infection from it.

To put it bluntly, there is no good reason that covid should be viewed as "airborne AIDS." And it does a disservice to everyone to treat it as such. Covid remains a real public health issue (it killed at least 48,000 Americans last year, according to provisional CDC data), and those with long covid deserve more attention and research. But blaming every other health problem on the coronavirus is both inaccurate and a wasteful distraction.

The pandemic did have a real effect on the return of measles globally, for instance, since it interrupted or diverted resources from existing measles vaccination programs, especially in poorer countries. The disinformation spread by the anti-vaccination movement about the covid-19 vaccine also likely weakened public confidence in other vaccines. So beating back measles will require reminding people everywhere about the value of vaccination and ensuring that they can easily access vaccines.

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