State of Emergency Declared in Washington State Over Measles Outbreak

An anonymous reader quotes CBS News:

The governor of Washington state declared a state of emergency Friday over a measles outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in a county with one of the state's lowest vaccination rates. Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement that the outbreak in Clark County 'creates an extreme public health risk' that could spread throughout the state...

Clark County Public Health has confirmed 30 measles cases since January 1 and identified another nine suspected cases. Twenty-six of the confirmed cases were people who were not immunized for measles, the agency said... Only 77.4 percent of all public students there complete their vaccinations, according to state records cited by the Oregonian...Most of the confirmed cases -- 21 -- were with children between 1 and 10 years old. Eight cases involved people 11 to 18 years old, and one case was someone 19 to 29.

Time magazines also reports that authorities in the neighboring states of Oregon and Idaho 'have issued warnings to residents.'

In November the World Health Organization warned that measles cases worldwide had jumped more than 30% from 2016 to 2017, according to AFP, 'in part because of children not being vaccinated.'

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