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CDC REMINDS TRAVELERS TO EUROPE: PROTECT AGAINST MEASLES

JULY 19 2017 -- With the peak summer travel season under way, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reminding travelers to Europe and other global destinations to take steps to protect themselves against measles amid outbreaks of the disease.

More than 14,000 cases of measles have been reported in Europe since January 2016, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. In the past year, 35 people across Europe have died from the disease, according to the World Health Organization.

“Most measles cases in the United States are the result of international travel,” said Gary Brunette, M.D., M.P.H., chief of CDC’s travelers’ health program. “Travelers get infected while abroad and bring the disease home. This can cause outbreaks here in the United States.”

Measles cases have been reported in 15 European countries in 2017:  Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

CDC has issued travel health notices for five European countries with measles outbreaks since November 2016; the most recent was France on July 7. The others are Belgium, Germany, Italy and Romania.

How to protect yourself and others against measles

The CDC recommends that anyone who isn’t protected against measles, either through vaccination or past infection, should get vaccinated, including before international travel. This simple step protects both travelers and people back home. Travelers should see their health care professional at least 4-6 weeks before any international travel. You may need this much time to complete a vaccine series, and your body needs time to build up immunity.

Measles is one of the most contagious of all infectious diseases; approximately 9 out of 10 susceptible persons with close contact to a measles patient will develop measles. The virus spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The virus can live for up to 2 hours in the air or on surfaces.

People with measles usually have a rash, high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes. Some people also get an ear infection, diarrhea, or a serious lung infection such as pneumonia. Although severe cases are rare, measles can cause swelling of the brain and death.

Any international travelers coming to the United States who develop measles symptoms should contact a doctor immediately.

To learn more about measles vaccine recommendations, visit CDC’s Measles Vaccination page. https://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccination.html

For more information about measles symptoms, prevention and travel precautions, visit CDC’s Measles for Travelers page. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/measles

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The adjacent image was one of many captured by Lt. Cmdr. Gary Brunette, a U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) officer, who’d been deployed the Caribbean nation of Haiti shortly after the country’s earthquake in Jan 2010. Shown here, was a scene inside a Canadian emergency response post in a Haitian Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) camp shortly after the earthquake in Jan 2010. Transported to Haiti by way of the naval vessel, the USS Bataan, Lt. Cmdr. Brunette, along with the rest of the involved USPHS crew, set out in early Jan 2010 to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief support to Operation Unified Response in Haiti after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated the island nation. Canada, as well as Russia, France, Chile, Peru, Jamaica, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Iceland, Sri Lanka, China, Korea, Qatar, and Israel were all involved in some important in providing the relief that was so crucial to Haiti in that country’s time of need.

JULY 2017

• New Prediabetes Awareness Campaign Features Unexpected Animal Videos to Encourage Americans to Learn Their Risk - Press Release - JULY 25 2017
• Country with world's highest HIV prevalence is now controlling its HIV epidemic - Press Release - JULY 24 2017
• CDC reminds travelers to Europe: Protect against measles - Press Release - JULY 19 2017
• New CDC report: More than 100 million Americans have diabetes or prediabetes - Press Release - JULY 18 2017
• CDC awards $12 million to help states fight opioid overdose epidemic - Press Release - JULY 17 2017
• New CDC Report shows deaths from cancer higher in rural America - Press Release - JULY 06 2017
• Opioid prescribing is still high and varies widely throughout the U.S. - Press Release - JULY 06 2017

JUNE 2017

• 40th Annual Report on the Health of the Nation Features Long-Term Trends in Health and Health Care Delivery in the United States - Press Release - JUNE 28 2017
• Life at Ground Zero: The Story of the West African Ebola Outbreak - Press Release - JUNE 26 2017
• Youth tobacco product use, including e-cigarettes, drops during 2015-2016 - Press Release - JUNE 15 2017
• Updated CDC Travel Health Book Now Online - Press Release - JUNE 13 2017
• CDC analysis of data from US territories finds serious birth defects in about 1 in 12 fetuses or infants of pregnant women with Zika infection in the first trimester - Press Release - JUNE 08 2017
• Patients in health care facilities at risk for Legionnaires' disease - Press Release - JUNE 06 2017
• NIOSH and OSHA Introduce Improved Heat Safety App for Outdoor Workers - Press Release - JUNE 06 2017

MAY 2017

• US Death Rates from Alzheimer's Disease Increased 55 Percent from 1999 to 2014 - Press Release - MAY 25 2017
• Crypto outbreaks linked to swimming have doubled since 2014 - Press Release - MAY 18 2017
• New Hepatitis C Infections Nearly Tripled over Five Years - MAY 11 2017
• CDC updates guidance on interpretation of Zika testing results for pregnant women - Press Release - MAY 05 2017
• African-American Death Rate Drops 25 Percent - Press Release - MAY 02 2017

APRIL 2017

• Dispatches from the Front Lines: CDC's Disease Detective Conference - Press Release - APRIL 24 2017
• Campylobacter, Salmonella led bacterial foodborne illnesses in 2016 - Press Release - APRIL 21 2017
• Rates of new diagnosed cases of type 1 and type 2 diabetes on the rise among children, teens - Press Release - APRIL 12 2017
• About 1 in 10 U.S. pregnant women with confirmed Zika infection had a fetus or baby with birth defects in 2016 - Press Release - APRIL 04 2017
• CDC Study Finds Flu Vaccine Saves Children's Lives - Press Release - APRIL 03 2017

MARCH 2017

• Annual Report to the Nation: Cancer Death Rates Continue to Decline - Press Release - MARCH 31 2017
• One in four U.S. middle and high school students say they've been exposed to secondhand aerosol from e-cigarettes - Press Release - MARCH 20 2017
• Arthritis Limits Daily Activities of 24 million US Adults - Press Release - MARCH 07 2017
• Nation sees near doubling in colorectal cancer screening in 2015 compared with 2000 - Press Release - MARCH 03 2017
• '500 Cities' website: Users can explore neighborhood health data - Press Release - MARCH 02 2017

FEBRUARY 2017

• New Vital Signs study finds noise-related hearing loss not limited to work exposure - Press Release - FEB 07 2017

JANUARY 2017

• South African Study Provides Compelling New Evidence on Role of Person-to Person Transmission in Drug-Resistant TB Epidemics - Press Release - JAN 19 2017
• Rural Americans at higher risk of death from five leading causes - Press Release - JAN 12 2017
• Remarkable progress made reducing kidney failure from diabetes in Native American populations - Press Release - JAN 10 2017