Close Call: US Can Still Officially Claim Measles Eliminated

After almost 20 years, the United States can still say that measles has been eliminated here, after the New York State Department of Health declared an end to that state’s almost year-long measles outbreak, which threatened to topple that claim, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“We are very pleased that the measles outbreak has ended in New York and that measles is still considered eliminated in the United States. This result is a credit to the cooperative work by local and state health departments, community and religious leaders, other partners, and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention],” HHS Secretary Alex Azar, said in an HHS news release. Read More.