How Public Health Outreach Ended A 1990s Measles Outbreak And What’s Different Now

|

May 14th, 2019

Sign advertising free measles vaccines and information about measles are displayed at the Rockland County Health Department in Pomona, N.Y. The county in New York City’s northern suburbs has had more than 200 measles cases since last fall.

Seth Wenig / AP

Updated at 6:50 p.m. ET

This year’s measles outbreak is the largest since the 1990s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that 75 more measles cases were confirmed last week in 23 states, bringing the U.S. total to 839 so far this year.

The outbreak from 1989 through 1991 was much larger than today’s, with more than 27,000 cases in 1990 alone. But the conditions that lead to that outbreak and what it took to end it are dramatically different from the ones the U.S. is seeing today.

Top Stories