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United States may lose measles elimination status due to outbreaks

Posted at 9:42 AM, Aug 29, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-29 12:43:33-04

The United States could soon lose its measles elimination status. A director at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says there's a "reasonable chance" the U.S. will lose its measles-elimination status in October because of ongoing outbreaks in New York.

A measles outbreak in New York City started in September of last year and has caused more than 600 confirmed cases of measles. An outbreak in nearby Rockland County, New York has caused more than 300 cases.

Twenty-nine other states have had measles outbreaks in the past 12 months but those were much more short-lived than the ones in New York.