The agency said health care providers should ‘ensure’ international travelers get vaccinated.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent out a “health alert” on Monday due to what it called an increase in global and U.S. measles cases, saying that health providers should “ensure” that international travelers are vaccinated.
Of the 58 cases reported across the United States in 2024, about 93 percent are connected “to international travel,” the CDC said Monday. It said that most of the cases are reported in children aged 12 months and older who have not received a measles vaccine.
“To prevent measles infection and reduce the risk of community transmission from importation, all U.S. residents traveling internationally, regardless of destination, should be current on their MMR vaccinations,” the CDC said, referring to the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine that is commonly administered across the world.
“Many countries, including travel destinations such as Austria, the Philippines, Romania, and the United Kingdom, are experiencing measles outbreaks,” the agency also warned.
But due to “currently high population immunity against measles in most U.S. communities, the risk of widescale spread is low,” the health alert said. “However, pockets of low coverage leave some communities at higher risk for outbreaks.”
The agency then advised parents who plan to travel outside the United States to speak with a health care provider to make sure they received the MMR vaccine at least two weeks prior.
It came after multiple outbreaks of the contagious virus were reported in several areas across the United States, including a Chicago shelter holding illegal immigrants earlier this month. Officials have said that 10 cases were connected to the shelter, prompting the CDC to send a team to the area to investigate and try and prevent the spread of the virus.
The head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, Dr. Olusimbo Ige told NBC News last week that the agency is “trying to get it under control by vaccinating as many people as possible” at the shelter, coming as about a dozen cases have been confirmed so far. He added that it takes about three weeks for the vaccine to start working.
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