Measles Outbreak Worsens in Washington State

Most of the 34 patients are under 10 years old, and almost all have been confirmed as unvaccinated against the virus.

Written byCatherine Offord

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Update (February 5): The state of Washington is now averaging more than one new case of measles per day, with the number of infected people hitting 49 in Clark County alone, CNN reports. The country-wide total for 2019 currently stands at 79 cases, and includes patients across at least 10 US states.

The number of confirmed measles cases in southwest Washington state has grown to 34, with at least 30 of the patients not having been vaccinated against the virus, the Associated Press reports today (January 28). The outbreak, which started at the end of December and prompted Washington’s governor to declare a public health emergency earlier this month, has drawn further attention to the dangerous consequences of vaccination exemptions.

“Measles was eliminated from the US in 2000, but it’s been allowed to return,” Peter Hotez, an infectious diseases researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, tells ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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