Judge rejects challenge of New York City's mandatory measles vaccination order

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Brooklyn judge on Thursday denied a petition seeking to lift New York City's recently-imposed mandatory measles vaccination order, dismissing a court challenge brought by an anonymous group of parents who argued the order was unconstitutional.

The judge sided with municipal health authorities who issued the order last week, calling it a rare but necessary step to contain the worst measles outbreak to hit the city since 1991. The outbreak has infected at least 329 people so far, most of them children from Orthodox Jewish communities in the borough of Brooklyn.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Bill Berkrot)