NEW YORK — Quarantines in California. Fines in New York City. Orders for some people to avoid public places in Rockland County, N.Y.
As an outbreak of measles surges across the United States — with 704 cases this year and counting — some local health officials are trying to deal with contagion in unvaccinated communities by turning to extraordinary police powers from the past.
“Unfortunately, we are revisiting diseases from another generation,” said Jason Schwartz, an assistant professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health.
The once-common disease became increasingly rare after a vaccine became available in the 1960s. In 2000, health officials declared the disease eliminated in the U.S., meaning that all new cases stemmed from infected travelers and not from homegrown transmission.
A decade ago, the cases numbered fewer than 100 a year. But they have been jumping since then, with the worst happening right now.
On Monday, U.S. health officials said the national tally already has eclipsed the total for any full year since 1994, when 963 cases were reported.
Twenty-two states have reported cases, but the vast majority have been in New York — mainly in New York City and in nearby Rockland County. Most of the New York cases have been unvaccinated people in Orthodox Jewish communities.
In New York City this month, officials ordered mandatory vaccinations in four Brooklyn ZIP codes, threatening possible fines of up to $1,000 for noncompliance. City officials said 57 unvaccinated people have received summonses. The city also has shut down seven religious schools that failed to exclude unvaccinated children, though five were later allowed to reopen after submitting a corrective plan.
Last week in California, more than 1,000 students and staff at two Los Angeles universities were quarantined on campus or sent home after cases began to appear. It was a limited order, and half already are out of quarantine, officials said Monday.
Dr. Umair Shah, the head of Houston’s county health department, said “we don’t know” if these kinds of measures will become more common.
