A measles outbreak that sickened more than 70 people, mostly children, in the Pacific Northwest is finally over even as the total number of cases across the U.S. continues to spike to near-record levels , officials said Monday. Six weeks have passed without a new infection in southwest Washington state, where the outbreak began on Jan. 3, said Dr. Alan Melnick, head of the Clark County public health department. The good news from the Pacific Northwest comes as authorities elsewhere struggled with the most measles cases in the U.S. since 1994. In Washington state, the outbreak began four months ago when measles was confirmed in a child who had traveled from the Ukraine to the U.S. The outbreak prompted a public conversation in both Washington and Oregon about routine childhood vaccines.

Source: CBC News April 29, 2019 22:07 UTC