Posted on 05/13/2014 9:33:16 AM PDT by FewsOrange
An Ohio measles outbreak tied to unvaccinated Amish travelers who visited the Philippines has reached 66 cases — the most in a single state in the U.S. since 1996, health officials said Monday.
It’s part of a larger surge of measles nationwide that has topped last year’s 186 cases and is closing in fast on the 220 cases reported in 2011, the most since the highly contagious disease was considered eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The latest official CDC figures logged 161 cases as of May 3, but there have been dozens more reported since then, officials said.
Travelers bringing home the virus that can linger in the air for hours have spread the disease to growing pockets of unvaccinated children and adults back home. California has posted 59 cases; New York has logged 26 this year.
In Ohio, all of the cases have been confined to the Amish community, but health officials there have said they fear that it could expand to the wider population.
“There’s a good chance that someone who doesn’t know they have been exposed will pass the virus on to the non-Amish population — who we commonly refer to as the English,” Knox County Health Commissioner Julie Miller told reporters recently.
The outbreak has been traced to unvaccinated Amish aid workers who traveled to the Philippines on a volunteer mission to help with typhoon recovery — and returned to spread measles to family members, who in turn gave it to others. The Philippines is in the midst of a measles outbreak that has sickened more than 26,000 and killed more than 40, according to the World Health Organization.
Amish communities typically have low vaccination rates, but at least 800 people have been vaccinated in Knox County and another 2,000 have gotten shots in nearby Holmes County, which both have large Amish populations, said Pam Palm, a health department spokeswoman.
The Ohio cases are the most in a single state since 107 measles cases were confirmed in Utah in 1996. That year, the outbreak accounted for 25 percent of all measles cases reported, according to the CDC.
Measles was considered wiped out in the U.S. after a concerted public health campaign, mostly in low-income families. The CDC’s Vaccines for Children Program, which pays for vaccines for poorer families, was started in response to a resurgence in measles that sickened 55,000 people between 1989 and 1991.
At its peak in the U.S., measles killed 500 people a year in the U.S. and hospitalized about 48,000. The CDC recommends two doses of measles vaccine for children older than 1 and for adults and teens who have not had the disease or been inoculated.
It’s okay to name the source because they are Amish. Were it an enclave of illegals we’d never know it.
I figure they must have taken a Conestoga wagon to Aberdeen, Wash. where they could catch either the Lady Washington or the Hawaiian Chieftain, sailing ships that operate out of that port--although they usually sail up and down the coast and not as far as the Philippines.
More concerned with folks going there, vaccinated, then coming back here, with no quarantine period, no medical check, etc., and spreading it.
I though we pretty much eradicated measles... evidently not.
How are you, Dawg Sister? Things are well with you, I hope...
The Amish do not go begging for rides. Driving the Amish is a business in communities like Holmes county. The Amish pay a certain fare per mile to be driven somewhere farther than they could get with a buggy in about an hour’s time. Or they will use a driving service if they need to go to the store and get perishables in the summer.
They fly. Most of those doing mission work are New Order Amish. They are not prohibited from flying, owning telephones, using electricity, or owning cars, in some groups. Like all Amish groups, the rules vary from church district to church district, and they cannot be generalized.
You think that’s bad, how ‘bout THIS piece of insanity.
If you want to come here from another country and get your Green Card, you have to pass a battery of medical tests to prove that you are not carrying any communicable diseases.
However, if you are coming into this country on an H1B or other temporary work visa, NO such tests are required!
You can live her for up to six years on an H1B.
I have known people who lived in the country for six years before being sent out to undergo a battery of medical tests prior to applying for their Green Cards.
After six years, we’ve pretty much been exposed to everything they might have had.
sigh....
HOW is the bigger question. Do they ride their horses to the Philippines?
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