(Reuters) – Two new cases of measles were reported in the United States last week, in the latest sign that health authorities have yet to take control of the nation’s worst outbreak of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease since 1992.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also determined that two previously reported cases of the disease were not in fact measles, keeping the total number of cases for the year at 1,241 as of Sept. 12.
The outbreak, which began in New York on Oct. 1, has largely been linked to parents who declined to vaccinate their children. It threatens to end United States’ measles-free status. (https://bit.ly/2iMFK71)
More than 71,000 doses of MMR vaccines have been administered in the New York counties affected by the outbreak since last October, which is a 70% increase from the previous year, the New York State Department of Health said.
(Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)
