IDPH says measles outbreak is over
The Illinois Department of Public Health says a measles outbreak has ended because no new cases have been reported in the last six weeks.
Six weeks is twice the incubation period of the disease.
It was the largest outbreak since 1990, with 67 cases reported beginning March 7, according to a news release.
Most of the cases were linked to a Chicago shelter housing recent immigrants. In addition, there were reported cases in DuPage, Lake, Will and suburban Cook counties.
The health department paid for a quarantine shelter in a hotel in Chicago for the most vulnerable recent immigrants ‒ children, pregnant women and immunocompromised people. That also helped relieve crowding in the shelter with the largest outbreak.
It also expanded its laboratory capacity to speed up measles testing.
The Centers for Disease Control declared in 2000 that measles had been eliminated in the United States. But since then, there have been outbreaks, because it is still commonly transmitted in some countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Americas, and Africa.
The CDC says the majority of the cases in the United States were of people who had not been vaccinated against the disease.