US measles outbreak not linked to undocumented immigration, top U.S. health official says
Lauren Gambino for The Guardian reports that a top U.S. government health official earlier this week attempted to dispel claims of a link between the recent measles outbreak and undocumnted immigration to the United States.
Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said there was no evidence to support claims that measles is being imported into the country by undocumented immigrants. Most commonly, she said, measles reaches the US through unvaccinated Americans who travel to Europe or Asia. She said further that “the Americas was the first region to actually eliminate measles. . . . In fact, the year’s outbreak, associated with the Disney park, the US exported measles virus to Mexico. So we see the virus unfortunately going the other direction.”
There have been 154 confirmed cases of measles in the US this year, a majority of them linked to initial exposure at California’s Disneyland theme park. According to the CDC, 17 states and Washington DC have reported cases of the disease. Canada and Mexico have also reported cases stemming from the Disneyland outbreak.
Some anti-immigration reform advocates have tried to force a connection between measles and immigration. Last year, during the height of public concern over Ebola, health officials were forced to debunk claims that undocumented children fleeing poverty and violence in Central America were carrying the disease, which was affecting countries in west Africa.
Schuchat responded to such claims before a Senate health committee earlier this month, telling lawmakers the current measles outbreak could most likely be traced back to a strain that came from the Philippines, which saw its immunization structure destroyed by a typhoon in 2013.
KJ