Michigan measles outbreak linked to outbreak in New York

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 4/16/2019, 10:10 a.m.
Michigan health officials confirmed the measles outbreak in Oakland County is linked to the ongoing outbreak in New York.
A close-up photograph of an MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine vial with a syringe in background.

By Debra Goldschmidt, CNN

(CNN) -- Michigan health officials confirmed the measles outbreak in Oakland County is linked to the ongoing outbreak in New York.

Lynn Sutfin, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, told CNN that a male individual from New York traveled to Southeast Michigan by vehicle.

"He was unknowingly contagious with the measles during his visit here. All 38 other cases of measles in Southeast Michigan can be linked to this individual," she said.

State health officials have reported 39 cases from this outbreak. (There is an unrelated case of measles in Washtenaw County, Michigan, which is linked to international travel.)

The ongoing outbreak in ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in New York began in October when, according to health officials, an unvaccinated child became infected with measles while visiting Israel.

"Since then, there have been additional people from Brooklyn and Queens who were unvaccinated and acquired measles while in Israel. People who did not travel were also infected in Brooklyn and Rockland County," the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene website says.

On Monday they added that two people contracted the illness from the UK and one from Ukraine. According to the World Health Organization, Ukraine has reported 72,000 cases of measles in the last 12 months, the highest of any country.

In all, more than 500 cases of measles have been reported in New York as part of this outbreak -- 332 of them since January with more than 40 new cases identified in the last week.

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