MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — This year, the germs roared back.
Measles tripled. Hepatitis A mushroomed. A rare but deadly mosquito-borne disease increased.
And that was just the United States.
Globally, there was an explosion of measles in many countries, an unrelenting Ebola outbreak in Africa and a surge in dengue fever in Asia. There were also backslides in some diseases, like polio, that the world was close to wiping out.
"It's been a tough year for infectious diseases," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A look back at some U.S. disease trends in 2019:MEASLES
There were nearly 1,300 cases of measles in the U.S. through November, That's the largest number in 27 years. There were no deaths but about 120 people