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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising Americans to make sure they are fully protected against measles before traveling internationally this summer.
The agency issued a health advisory Wednesday urging people to ensure they have received two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine at least two weeks before traveling to areas of the world with active outbreaks. of measles.
Those two doses provide 97% protection against the virus, according to the CDC. But an unvaccinated person is at extremely high risk of getting sick from even a brief exposure.
A person “can get measles simply by being in a room where a person with measles has been, even up to two hours after that person has left,” according to the CDC website.
It is recommended that children receive their first dose between 12 and 15 months, and the second dose when the child enters kindergarten, at 4, 5, or 6 years. Adolescents and adults who have never received the vaccines should receive two doses at least 28 days apart, according to the CDC.
Increase in measles cases
There is new evidence that measles cases are rising again in the US after falling during the lockdown.
As of June 8, “The United States has seen an increase in measles cases during the first 5 months of 2023, with 16 cases reported compared to 3 in 2022 during the same period,” the CDC wrote in the CDC alert. health.
Eighty-eight percent of those cases have been linked to international travel. Most of the patients had not been vaccinated.
Just this week, California health officials confirmed two cases of measles in a Fresno County home. It was not known how the two people became infected.
“These cases are reminders of the critical role of vaccines in protecting the community,” Fresno County Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra said in a statement to NBC News. “We urge all parents to work with their pediatrician or contact the health department to help get their child up to date on immunizations.”
In 2019, two large outbreaks in New York spiked cases to levels not seen since 1992: 1,274 cases.
New outbreaks are also being increasingly reported in other areas of the world, especially India, Indonesia, parts of the Middle East and much of Africa, the CDC said.
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