rely on fraudulent claims, such as a purported link to autism, that have been uniformly debunked by evidence and analysis over the last two decades,” said study co-corresponding author Sahotra Sarkar, a professor of philosophy and integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin.
As well as identifying the 25 U.S. counties at greatest risk for measles outbreaks, the researchers pinpointed the countries that contribute most to measles risk in the United States: India, China, Mexico, Japan, Ukraine, Philippines and Thailand.
“Our prediction is aligned with multiple counties that have experienced measles outbreaks this year. Critically, we recommend that public health officials and policymakers prioritize monitoring the counties we identify to be at high risk that have not yet reported cases, especially those that lie adjacent to counties with ongoing outbreaks and those that house large international airports,” Gardner said.
U.S. health officials should focus on areas where there is strong resistance to vaccination resistance, as well as regions with high numbers of travelers returning from measles-affected countries, according to Sarkar.
The analysis was published May 9 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on measles.
