Health & Fitness
A Man Traveling From Brooklyn Started Michigan's Measles Outbreak
A man fundraising for Brooklyn's Jewish community in Detroit unintentionally became the state's patient zero, the Washington Post reports.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — As the borough struggles with its own measles cases, it turns out someone from Brooklyn is also responsible for an outbreak of the disease in a different state.
A man traveling to Detroit raising money for Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community is "patient zero" in Michigan's measles outbreak, the Washington Post reports.
The traveler, who wasn't identified, unintentionally spread the respiratory virus to 39 people while he was there after a doctor misdiagnosed his sickness as bronchitis. All but one case was reported to a health clinic in Detroit suburb and traced back to that single traveler.
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"His case offers a cautionary tale about how easily one of the most infectious pathogens on the planet spreads within close-knit communities — especially those whose members live, work and socialize outside the mainstream," the Post writes.
Just as several of the first patients in the Brooklyn outbreak, the man had come from Israel, where there is a major outbreak of the disease, last November to New York, the Post said. He stayed there for about two months before beginning his travels.
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The doctor who misdiagnosed him, who had never seen the measles before, began to rethink his diagnosis after the man called back and said he had a rash, health officials told the Post. The doctor left the man's contact information with the health department, who eventually tracked down the traveler working with members of the state's Jewish community.
Michigan is one of five states experiencing an outbreak. In Brooklyn, Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared a public health emergency and the city's health department has already closed down one Orthodox Jewish school for not complying with vaccination orders.
According to the CDC, through April 11, there have been 555 measles cases reported in 20 states in 2019. Just a week earlier, the CDC reported that through April 4, 2019, there were 465 measles cases reported in the country.
Read the full Washington Post story here.
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