- THURSDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) — Some parents' refusal to
vaccinate children seems to be behind the highest rate of measles cases
reported since 1996, federal officials said Thursday.

Between Jan. 1 and July 31 of this year, 131 measles cases have been
reported in the United States, many of them among children whose parents
have philosophical or religious objections to the vaccine, according to
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 15 patients, including four children 15 months or younger,
were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

By comparison, 55 cases of measles were reported in 2006, 66 in 2005,
37 in 2004, 56 in 2003 and 44 in 2002, for an average of about 64 per
year.

“Every year, we experience importation of measles from other countries
and from those going abroad, but this year is different. Once measles is
imported here, we're seeing it spread to many more people,” Dr. Anne
Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and
Respiratory Diseases, said during a Thursday teleconference. “Many cases
are in children who are eligible for vaccination but who have not been
immunized because of parents' decisions.”

Before the measles vaccine became available in the mid-1960s, the
disease caused an estimated 450 deaths and 4,000 cases of measles
encephalitis annually, some 1,000 of which resulted in chronic disability.
In the decade before the vaccination was introduced, an estimated 3
million to 4 million people were infected each year.

The disease was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, but
sporadic cases are imported from other countries. Some 20 million cases
still occur globally, said Dr. Jane Seward, deputy director of the
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases' division of
viral diseases.

Measles is highly contagious and requires high vaccination rates. In a
room of 100 people, only one of whom actually has measles, another 90 to
95 people will become infected, Seward said. “We need very high levels of
population immunity, approximately 95 percent,” she said.

The first cases in the current outbreak appeared in April in Washington
state. Eight children in one household fell ill, four of them after
attending a church conference, which may have been the source of the
outbreak. In all, 19 people contracted measles, 11 of them home-schooled
children who were not required to be vaccinated. The particular strain
identified had been circulating in Japan and Europe, officials said.

In May, four girls aged 10 to 14 contracted measles in Illinois. All
had attended at least one event together; the events were also attended by
a teenager who had just returned from Italy and reportedly had fever and
rash. Officials were unable to get more information on the traveler, but
the strain identified this time had been circulating in Italy. Through
July, a total of 32 cases were identified in Illinois, 25 of them in
home-schooled children.

Other cases have been identified in New York (27), Arizona (14),
California (14), Wisconsin (seven), Michigan (four), Hawaii (five),
Arkansas (two), and Washington, D.C., and Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri,
New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia (one each), officials said.

Of the 131 people throughout the United States who contracted measles
this year, 112 were unvaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown.
Sixteen were under 1 year of age and too young to be vaccinated.

Ninety-five patients were eligible for the vaccination, but 63 were not
vaccinated because of their parents' beliefs, officials said.

Seventeen of the total cases were “importations” — three each from
Switzerland and Italy; two each from Israel, Belgium and India; one each
from Germany, China, Pakistan, Russia and the Philippines. Israel,
Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Great Britain are all reporting outbreaks
among individuals who have refused vaccination. Britain and Italy are
reporting endemic measles, officials said.

Officials emphasized the importance of keeping children's vaccinations
current.

“We have been lucky to have low levels of measles and other
vaccine-preventable diseases, but children can still get measles and can
still spread measles, including to those too young to be immunized and
those who can't be vaccinated because of medical reasons,” Schuchat said.

Seward added: “It's important in this country to maintain high levels
of vaccination that have been so successful in limiting measles to
relatively low numbers over the last decade. We would like to remind
parents, as their children go back to school, whether or not they attend
in schools or are home-schooled or attend day care, this is a good time to
be considering their vaccination status for measles to protect them from
acquiring this disease.”

More information

The CDC has more on measles.