More than 800 Americans have contracted measles this year in the biggest outbreak in decades, new figures show on Monday.
Another 75 cases of measles were confirmed in the last week, bringing the current caseload to 839, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed Monday.
No new states have reported outbreaks, but officials are concerned about the lack of progress to control New York City's outbreak, which accounts for 66 of the 75 new cases.
Measles has struck 839 people across the US in yet another surge driven by the disease's spread in New York, accounting for 66 out of the 75 new cases this week
In New York, measles has spread like wildfire in Orthodox Jewish communities where some believe that a vaccine constitutes a foreign body, which the Torah forbids Jews from allowing to enter their own bodies.
'Outbreaks in New York City and state are the largest ...the longer they continue, the greater the chance measles will once again get a foothold in the United States,' said Dr Nancy Messonier.
And infectious disease experts expect the numbers of cases will just continue to grow.
'One of the problems is that because these outbreaks are so large, they take forever,' says Dr Frank Esper, an infectious disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic.
'Think of it like wildfires in California: when it's a lot of smaller ones, it's quickly controlled, but, like a fire, measles is extremely infectious and when it gets huge it can take a while [to get under control].'
In an effort to stem the spread of measles, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio declared a state of emergency requiring everyone of all ages in the zip codes hit by the measles outbreaks there.
The mayor's declaration was met with a lawsuit filed by Orthodox parents, which he defeated last week.
Most measles outbreaks began with international travelers, but all of those visitors to the US were old enough to have been vaccinated.
These travelers have primarily come from Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines.
One such traveler also spread the virus to Detroit, Michigan.
CDC officials also underscored the role of misinformation in the current outbreaks.
Social media and on-the-ground community agents have been disseminating misconceptions among many communities about the
