Eighty-Four Percent of Measles Cases During Chicago’s Outbreak Tied to Venezuelan Migrants

Eighty-Four Percent of Measles Cases During Chicago’s Outbreak Tied to Venezuelan Migrants

The last time we checked on reports of a major measles outbreak in Chicago this spring, my Legal Insurrection colleague Mary Chastain indicated that health officials traced the outbreak to an illegal alien shelter.

Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that 84 percent of measles cases in the outbreak at the Chicago migrant center are linked to Venezuelan immigrants.

New information reveals that the spate of 57 cases at the Pilsen migrant shelter can be traced back to a one year-old boy who had only received one of the two vital vaccines.

The majority of the cases — 72 percent — were among unvaccinated people, the CDC said.

The first patient had arrived in the US less than five months before he became ill. He had received one dose of the MMR vaccine five weeks prior to his rash.

He had no recent travel history or known exposure to measles, and was taken to the hospital on February 27.

The Chicago Department of Public Health was notified of the case a few days later, and organized a vaccination event for the residents and staff members of the shelter the next day.
The report cites overcrowding at the center for the rampant spread, with 500 people said to be crammed into a single room.

The agency notes that the majority of the cases occurred among those who were unvaccinated.

Most infections (72%) occurred in unvaccinated residents, and 28% were diagnosed in those who had received at least one measles vaccine dose at least 21 days before the first known measles exposure.

Fifty-two of the 57 infected people were shelter residents, while three were staff workers, and two were community members. The median patient age was 3 years. Two cases occurred among people who had lived at the affected shelter but had resettled or transferred to less-crowded shelters with private sleeping areas after March 7; no secondary cases were identified at those shelters.

Fifty-one people (89%) were hospitalized for isolation and/or measles complications, but no deaths were reported. The last known exposure at the affected shelter was April 5. As of May 13, the same measles genotype D8 sequences had been identified from 52 case specimens; the remaining 5 isolates couldn’t be sequenced.

Among the others infected, four were from Peru, two from Ecuador, one from Chile and a further one whose origin country was not known.

Meanwhile, from Ontario, Canada, comes a reminded that severe measles can be fatal.

An Ontario child under the age of five has died of measles, the first such case in the Canadian province in more than a decade, according to the provincial health agency.

The child required hospitalization and was not vaccinated against the highly infectious respiratory virus, Public Health Ontario (PHO) said in a statement on Thursday, without specifying when or where the child died, or their actual age.

For the period between Jan. 1, 2013 and this week, there had not been a single measles-related death recorded in the province.

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