‘Tough year’ for measles and other infectious diseases in US

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