Once thought to be a bygone disease, measles is making a comeback in the United States and globally as folks shun a safe, surefire way to prevent it: The measles vaccine.
According to Forbes, more than a dozen states have reported measles cases in the U.S. since the start of 2024, as the disease makes an alarming global resurgence.
Here are the latest statistics on measles and where the disease is spreading:
- Florida: 10 cases (9 linked to an elementary school in Broward County, 1 in Polk County)
- Illinois: 8 cases in Chicago (4 at a migrant shelter in Pilsen neighborhood)
- Pennsylvania: 9 cases in January, outbreak declared over on Feb. 29
- Washington: 6 cases
- Arizona, California: 4 cases each
- Michigan, Minnesota: 3 cases each
- Louisiana, New York: 2 cases each
- Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia: 1 case each
- A total of 17 states have experienced outbreaks as of March 7
- Cases reported in the first three months of 2024 nearly match the total number of cases reported in 2023
- Measles was eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 but has seen an uptick in global cases
But what is measles, and how easily does it spread? Dr. Aaron Milstone and Lisa Lockherd Maragakis, two infectious disease experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, provide answers to your common measles questions.
What is measles? How easily can it spread?
Measles is a viral illness that’s one of the most easily transmitted infections known to medicine.
“Nine out of 10 unimmunized children who are in contact with an infected person will contract the virus,” the Hopkins experts wrote, and “the virus can linger in the air for about two hours after a person with measles has left the room.”
How serious a disease is it?
Many people may believe that measles is just an uncomfortable but transient illness, but the truth is that it can prove very severe — especially for kids.
Even in its “uncomfortable” form, measles is not easy, according to Milstone and Maragakis.
Besides the hallmark rash, which begins on the face and can cover the body, measles can involve
