At least 34 Minnesota children have contracted measles since an outbreak began in Hennepin County last month. The state health department reports nearly all of the cases are in Somali-American children ages 5 and younger. Public health officials and Somali community leaders urge parents to get their kids vaccinated immediately.
Public health officials say the vaccination rate among 2-year-olds in Minnesota's Somali-American community is just 42 percent, compared with 88 percent of non-Somali kids.
Osterholm said he expects the outbreak to grow. State health department infectious disease division director Kris Ehresmann reports two people not of Somali descent have contracted measles.
Minnesota health officials said Monday that Somali families in the state had been "targeted with misinformation" about vaccines as the number of measles cases neared 50. The Minnesota Department of Health had confirmed 48 measles cases Monday, 46 of them in children under age 10.
Measles
“In 2014, the United States experienced a record number of measles cases, with 667 cases from 27 states reported to CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD); this is the greatest number of cases since measles elimination was documented in the U.S. in 2000,” the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
“The majority of people who got measles were unvaccinated,” the CDC notes, adding that “[m]easles is still common in many parts of the world including some countries in Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and Africa.”
Refugees are not required to have vaccines, including the critical MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella: “Refugees, unlike most immigrant populations, are not required to have any vaccinations."