CBS NEWS – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its warning about the risk of contracting measles while traveling, after the agency tallied dozens of cases so far this year in travelers who were infectious while flying on airplanes within the U.S.
Since the beginning of the year, the CDC has received at least 62 reports of travelers who were contagious with the highly transmissible virus while flying into the U.S. or within the country, a spokesperson for the health agency told CBS News in a statement.
After investigating 50 of those travelers, the CDC was able to determine that measles spread during air travel in at least one of those situations, the spokesperson said.
That is usually based on connecting confirmed cases of measles among airline passengers sitting near each other.
There have also been numerous public alerts in recent months about the possible risk of exposure in airports, after travelers were found to be contagious.
“Exposures at the airport itself are more difficult to track, and state, local, and territorial health departments lead these investigations,” the spokesperson said.
In its Wednesday update, the CDC dropped its list of countries now facing “high incidence” of measles. Instead, the agency now warns only that the virus is “an ongoing risk around the world, and more international travelers are getting infected.”
In addition to this year’s record surge of the virus within the U.S., health authorities in neighboring Mexico and Canada have also reported large outbreaks of measles …
