Maybe they don’t want to jinx it or maybe no one else is paying attention, but folks should know that the Rockland County measles outbreak should be very quietly ending this week.
Wait, don’t you need to go 42 days (two incubation periods) without a new case to declare an outbreak over?
Yes.
But besides the 16 historical cases which were added on August 26, the last new case in Rockland County was reported on August 15.
That means that the Rockland Count outbreak, which started in September 2018, will end, if there are no new cases, on September 25, 2019.
The Rockland County Measles Outbreak is Ending
While it is exciting news that the outbreak is ending, it is even more welcome and exciting that the outbreak is ending this week!
“Outbreaks in New York City and Rockland County, New York have continued for nearly 8 months. If these outbreaks continue through summer and fall, the United States may lose its measles elimination status.”
U.S. measles cases in first five months of 2019 surpass total cases per year for past 25 years
If it had gone any longer, we would have been in danger of losing our status of having eliminated the endemic spread of measles.
And we would have had to continue to put up with anti-vax propaganda and misinformation that scares parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.
Instead, as the outbreak ends, we will hopefully learn some lessons, get more folks vaccinated and protected and move towards having record low numbers of measles cases once again.
Still, the Rockland County measles outbreak, with 312 cases, will end as the longest measles outbreak since the end of the endemic spread of measles in 2000.
With 654 cases, the Brooklyn outbreak, which lasted 11 months and cost over $6 million to contain, gets the record for being the largest measles outbreak in recent history.
More on the Rockland County Measles Outbreak
- How an Anti-Vaccine Safety Handbook Has Caused the Longest Measles Outbreak in Recent History
- What Does the Torah Say About Vaccines?
- Are the Measles Outbreaks in New York a Hoax?
- Who’s Getting Measles?
- Why Haven’t We Eradicated Measles Already?
- Who Is ‘Patient Zero’ in the 2019 Measles Outbreaks?
- The Rockland County Emergency Declaration
- A Slice of Pie: MMR Edition
- New York State Measles Watch
- State of Emergency Declared
- State of Emergency Renewed
- Measles State of Emergency Ends
- Health Department Issues Measles Orders for Children Attending Summer Camp and Camp Staff
- CDC – U.S. measles cases in first five months of 2019 surpass total cases per year for past 25 years
- CDC – Most Measles Cases in 25 Years: Is This the End of Measles Elimination in the United States?
- MMWR – Notes from the Field: Measles Outbreaks from Imported Cases in Orthodox Jewish Communities — New York and New Jersey, 2018–2019
- 2018 – 2019 Measles Outbreak in Rockland County