New York Measles Outbreak Halted Among Orthodox
A measles outbreak among New York’s Orthodox Jewish community has been curtailed, according to officials for the city’s department of health.
From March to June, 58 cases of measles were reported in Williamsburg and Boro Park in Brooklyn, two heavily populated Orthodox Jewish communities, among children and adults who were not vaccinated or had denied vaccination. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene worked with yeshivas, rabbis and other community groups to report cases and encourage vaccination.
The outbreak resulted in one case of pneumonia and two hospitalizations. Measles is a viral infection that can also cause miscarriages, brain inflammation, hospitalization and even death.
The collaboration between city health officials and the Orthodox community on measles prevention was notably more cooperative than other recent efforts between the two parties. Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and the DOHMH are currently involved in litigation revolving around the city’s regulation of metzitzah b’peh, a controversial oral suction cleansing technique used after circumcision, which can transmit herpes. Pro-MBP advocates claim the city’s medical evidence is false and that the regulation infringes on religious rights.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
