The 2019 measles outbreak is a substantial increase in the number of measles cases reported worldwide in 2019, relative to the previous year. As of April 2019, the number of measles cases reported worldwide represented a 300% increase from the number of cases seen in the previous year, constituting over 110,000 measles cases reported in the first three months of 2019. In some countries, this outbreak has been fueled by lack of access to the measles vaccine, while in others it has been exacerbated by opposition to vaccination. In the United States, the number of measles cases was on pace to reach a 25-year high by the middle of the year, beginning with a large concentration of cases in the Pacific Northwest followed by another in New York, as well in the U.S. state of California with two quarantines ordered at two colleges in Los Angeles on April 28, 2019. Other countries reporting large increases including Israel, Ukraine, Madagascar, India, and the Philippines. The outbreak in the Philippines was attributed by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to lowered trust in the government's immunization drive due to a controversy regarding administration of a dengue vaccine. The outbreak prompted President Donald Trump to shift away from his previous skepticism regarding vaccination, and to insist that parents must vaccinate their children, stating They have to get the shots. The vaccinations are so important. The Trump Administration also took a forceful position of requiring vaccination, with Trump's Surgeon General Jerome Adams calling for limitations on exemptions to vaccination.
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