In the wake of a measles outbreak, a district in New York State has declared a state of emergency and taken radical action. The Rockland County district, some 40 kilometers north of New York City, ordered on Tuesday that minors not vaccinated against the disease should not be allowed in public places for the next 30 days.
This is defined as the area where "more than ten people" could come together. This includes public transport.
"We must do everything in our power to end this outbreak," said District Administrator Ed Day. In addition, people who could not be vaccinated against measles for medical reasons - and children who are too young for a vaccine - would have to be protected.
Peter Carr / The Journal News / AP
District Administrator Ed Day at a press conference in his office in New City
Measles outbreaks have recently occurred in several US regions. The authorities are responsible for the resistance of vaccination opponents. In the county of Rockland County, with its approximately 300,000 inhabitants, 153 cases of measles have been recorded since October. In fact, the disease was declared eradicated there in 2000.
Despite large vaccination campaigns, according to Landrat Day, 27 percent of people between the ages of one year and 18 are still not vaccinated. Particularly high is the proportion of unvaccinated people in areas where many many ultra-Orthodox Jews live. In some ultra-Orthodox circles, the vaccination rate is significantly lower than usual.
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In Germany, the issue of measles vaccination is currently being discussed again. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Tuesday he was in favor of compulsory measles vaccines for children in day-care centers and schools. While this is an invasion of freedom, awareness-raising campaigns over the past few years have not been as fruitful as expected (read more about what vaccine recipients say here).
Even the coalition partner SPD advocates a Masernimpflicht. "I expect that we will get a proposal," said faction vice Karl Lauterbach. An implementation would not be easy, as it was "constitutionally not a harmless measure". But it's about a "last resort".
The Robert Koch Institute received data from 543 measles cases in 2018. Since the beginning of this year, numerous illnesses have been registered, among others in Lower Saxony.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in January that the number of measles cases worldwide had risen by 30 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year. The WHO region in Europe has recently seen an increase: there were 23,927 people in 2017 - 5273 in 2016. Measles are highly contagious and can lead to potentially fatal brain inflammation even years later.
Editor's note: We have subsequently written the information on vaccinations in ultra-Orthodox circles and thus clarified a previously inaccurate statement.