The U.S. has now tallied at least 60 confirmed or suspected measles cases investigated so far this year by authorities in 17 states — more than the 58 cases reported nationwide in all of 2023. It comes as health officials are grappling with multiple major outbreaks of the highly contagious virus around the world.
Now with spring break travel looming, health officials have ramped up pleas for Americans to double check whether they are up to date on the highly effective vaccines used to protect against measles.
“This is why it’s urgent for us to sort of address vaccination so that we can really decelerate sort of the march of measles, given the global scenario as well as what we’re seeing with some vaccination rates in the country,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Friday’s tally of measles cases is up from 45 counted by the CDC last week. Additional infections have since been announced in Arizona, California, Illinois and Ohio.
While infections have climbed, Daskalakis said counts still remain small enough to make it difficult for officials to navigate privacy concerns in releasing additional demographic trends of cases so far. Investigations are also still ongoing to collect that information.