It’s hard to believe we’re reading these words about the wealthiest and most developed, most educated nation the world has ever seen, in the second decade of the twenty-first century:
Measles infections in the United States have soared to the highest level in two decades, with nearly 300 cases so far this year — and still climbing, federal health officials said Thursday.
At least 288 cases had been recorded in 18 states and New York City as of May 23, boosted mostly by a huge surge in Amish communities in Ohio, where the recorded total of 138 infections was eclipsed even before the new government report came out.
That’s the most cases for this time of year in the U.S. since 1994, when 746 cases were logged by May, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. That year, the U.S. saw 963 total cases, a mark no one hopes will be repeated.
Hope and a buck will get you a cup of coffee but won’t, I’m afraid, prevent measles.
Please immunize your children.