Author: Kashmira Gander / Source: Newsweek
As the worst measles outbreak in New York state in decades rages on, health officials have launched an “aggressive, multipronged” attack against the disease that has sickened more than 200 people in five months.
Since fall 2018, at least 204 people have become ill with the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease, which a vaccine can prevent.
Many cases have hit the state’s Orthodox Jewish communities, parts of which support the anti-vaccination movement, a trend that has weakened herd immunity. Anti-vaccine campaigners have also targeted such communities with misinformation, Vox reported. Outbreaks have occured as travelers returning home from countries, including Israel—which is experiencing its own measles outbreak—bring the disease to the U.S. and encounter unimmunized communities and individuals.Jill Montag, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Health, told USA Today on Monday that thousands of children without the appropriate shots have been excluded from 29 schools and daycare centers where the infection may be present.
“We will continue our aggressive, multi-pronged response, until it is clear the outbreak has been contained,” she said.
In the past week, New York City health officials confirmed two new measles cases in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, and one in the Borough Park area, also in Brooklyn, bringing the total number of members of the city’s Orthodox…
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