A Brooklyn Yeshiva Is Responsible for 21 Measles Infections In Growing Outbreak, Health Officials Say

A measles outbreak is spreading within New York City’s Orthodox Jewish community, with 21 cases coming from a single yeshiva in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, according to city health officials. The New York City Department of Health announced Thursday that 121 people have contracted measles since the outbreak began in October, and 31 cases have been newly identified. The vast majority of cases have affected children, particularly in the Borough Park and Williamsburg neighborhoods of Brooklyn. The outbreak’s initial case was acquired when a person visited Israel, where a measles outbreak is in progress, according to health officials. Health officials have worked to promote measles vaccination in the Orthodox community, and in December required students at yeshivas in parts of Borough Park and Williamsburg to stay home from school if they had not received the full course of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. There has traditionally been some resistance to vaccines in the insular Orthodox community, though health department representatives said the vaccination rate in this population is roughly equivalent to that in New York City as a whole. About 7,000 children in those communities were vaccinated due to the city’s campaign, health officials said. But at least one yeshiva, Yeshiva Kehilath Yakov in Williamsburg, broke the city’s mandate in January and allowed an unvaccinated, but asymptomatic, student to return to school. The student turned out to...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime onetime public health Source Type: news