{"id":614311,"date":"2026-02-25T04:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/614311\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T04:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:24:11","slug":"fourth-measles-case-confirmed-in-los-angeles-county-this-year-annenberg-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/614311\/","title":{"rendered":"Fourth measles case confirmed in Los Angeles County this year \u2013 Annenberg Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fourth confirmed measles case was reported<\/a> in Los Angeles County this year, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. All four measles cases occurred due to international travels. <\/p>\n

As of Thursday, Feb. 20, the CDC has confirmed<\/a> nearly 1,000 cases of measles in the U.S. in 2026, which is about four times the number of cases reported in all of last year.<\/p>\n

In a campus health briefing with Annenberg Media, USC Chief Campus Health Officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman said the leading cause of the measles outbreak is declining vaccination rates across the country. <\/p>\n

In the year 2000, the U.S. was declared \u201cmeasles free,\u201d with no reported spread of the disease in the country. Vaccination rates floated around 95%, providing \u201cherd immunity,\u201d meaning enough people were immune so that the disease was unlikely to spread, she continued. Vaccination rates for measles have since dropped between 70% and 80%.<\/p>\n

Van Orman said the anti-vaccination movement was likely inspired by Andrew Wakefield\u2019s study on an alleged causation between measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations and autism spectrum disorder.<\/p>\n

However, scientific evidence has proven that there is no direct link <\/a>between the two.<\/p>\n

The university began emergency preparations about five years ago in lieu of a potential disease outbreak.\t<\/p>\n

Measles is a viral airborne illness that causes inflammation of the lining of the brain, and can lead to permanent brain damage if left untreated. Since the loss of herd immunity, a single case is a public health emergency and risks rapid spread, Van Orman said.<\/p>\n

A person contagious with measles is not immediately symptomatic. Symptoms can be present four days before the commonly identifying rash appears. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who have measles are walking around spreading the measles way before they realize that they\u2019re ill,\u201d Van Orman said.<\/p>\n

Van Orman added that every room a contagious measles patient walks in is considered exposed for four days, and any person who\u2019d enter that room two hours after they left it would be as well. <\/p>\n

While no antiviral treatment exists, measles is a vaccine-preventable disease, and she recommends the public to aim to regain herd immunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is to know your immune status,\u201d said Van Orman. <\/p>\n

She encouraged USC students and employees with an unknown measles status to receive a blood test at the Engemann Student Health Center. The test indicates if the body has a protective level of antibodies against the virus.<\/p>\n

Anyone exempt from the university\u2019s vaccine requirements is encouraged to speak with a healthcare professional at Keck about minimizing the risk of exposure.<\/p>\n

Those who are potentially contagious of the measles can call the 24\/7 nurse hotline 213-740-9355 (WELL) to discuss a care plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fourth confirmed measles case was reported in Los Angeles County this year, according to the Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":614312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,6080,5337,234448,215737],"class_list":{"0":"post-614311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-county","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-measles-outbreak","15":"tag-student-health"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}