CHARLOTTE, NC — Possible measles exposure in eastern North Carolina has prompted health officials in Durham County to issue a warning, according to a report.
The possible exposure occurred June 10 at a Durham coffee shop between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., according to a report by WSOC. Additionally, a child with a possible case of measles went to school the next day, the station said.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been no confirmed cases of measles reported in North Carolina this year. That’s not the case, however, for much of the country, as more than 1,000 cases have been reported in 2019.
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Measles, a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease that was all but eradicated in the United States nine years ago, has climbed to its highest level in 25 years at around 1044 cases so far in 2019. The resurgence of the disease is attributed to misinformation that is turning parents against vaccines.
According to the CDC, 1044 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 28 states between Jan. 1 and June 13, 2019. This is the worst year for measles in the United States since 1994, when there were 963 cases during the entire 12 months, the agency said.
Among the 28 states confirming measles, California, Washington state, New York and Michigan also have high numbers of measles cases. Other states reporting measles are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia.
Earlier this year at UCLA in California, 127 students and staff were quarantined to control the spread of the disease. At California State University-Los Angeles, 200 workers at a campus library, including some students, were sent home under quarantine orders and told to avoid contact with others. Public health officials in California were also trying to track down more than 1,500 people who were potentially exposed to the measles after a person with the disease flew into Los Angeles International Airport.
Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert, told The AP the trend away from vaccines is “alarming,” not only because measles is dangerous in itself, but also because it could mean children aren’t being vaccinated for other preventable diseases.
The vaccine against measles has been available since the 1960s and is considered safe and highly effective. Measles began making a comeback because of the spread of widely debunked information about the safety of vaccines. In 2014, there were 667 measles cases in the United States.
The CDC recommends the vaccine for everyone over a year old, except for people who had the disease as children. Those who have had measles are immune.
“Many parents are afraid. And if you want to believe your kid doesn’t need that many shots, there’s plenty of places to find people who agree with you,” Dr. Jonathan Fielding, former head of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, told The AP. “It’s not so easy to discern what is real and what is not.”
In most people, measles causes fever, runny nose, cough and a rash that covers the body. In a small fraction of cases, complications such as pneumonia and dangerous swelling of the brain can occur.
No one has died from the measles this year, but the CDC warns that for every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die. Since 2000 when the CDC declared measles eradicated, there have been three measles-related deaths in the United States, the most recent in 2015.
But before the vaccines became available, measles took a terrible toll. In 1958, the worst year for measles in recorded history, more than 552 people died. There were more than 763,000 measles cases that year.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.