New York state declares measles disaster amid resurgence of disease in US

JUST IN: New York state declares a measles disaster amid a resurgence of the disease across the US, which had largely eliminated it by 2000, as vaccination rates decline.

New York has declared a disaster emergency over measles, a disease America eliminated twenty six years ago.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed the order on Monday after the state logged 108 cases this year, 92 of them since mid July in a handful of rural communities where vaccination rates have fallen too low. The declaration runs through November fourth and lets more health workers give out MMR shots, and you can see those vaccines being prepared here.

Next door it's worse. Pennsylvania just passed a thousand cases, the biggest American outbreak in three decades, with more clusters in Texas, Utah, Ohio and South Carolina. Experts say coverage has slipped below the 95 percent needed to stop the spread, and critics point at an anti vaccine movement with friends in high places, including Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Junior.

In November, international health officials meet to decide whether the United States keeps its measles free status at all. A country that beat this disease in 2000 may be about to lose that title.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.