Measles cases hit 25-year high

The number of measles cases in the United States has reached its highest level in 25 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. The count rose to 695 cases from 22 states by Wednesday, up from 626 reported Monday. This year has been the nation’s worst for measles infections since 1994, but no deaths have been reported from the disease so far.

About three-quarters of the reported cases were in New York, particularly in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and suburban Rockland County. New York City officials last week banned unvaccinated people from public gathering places for at least three weeks in an attempt to control the outbreak. The Pacific Northwest has also seen increasing cases, with 74 reported in Washington and 14 in Oregon. Lawmakers in Washington state on Tuesday voted to cut personal and philosophical exemptions from measles vaccine requirements, and Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, has expressed his support.

The CDC recommends the measles vaccine for everyone over a year old except people who had the disease as children. There have been three reported deaths from measles in the United States since 2000, the last one in 2015.