How diseases can roar back into our society

To understand the virus’s re-emergence in America in 2025, some experts are looking to a past epidemic that had a high death rate in Philadelphia.

Excerpt: "But public health experts are deeply concerned. The number of measles cases is the most since 1992, when, as the epidemic waned from its peak, there were 2,200 cases.

They fear what is to come. Even as Texas health authorities declared an end to the West Texas measles outbreak on Monday, they warned of “ongoing outbreaks of measles in North America and around the world,” and forecast additional cases in Texas.

Experts say some of the same forces seen in the early ’90s are driving the spread of this preventable disease. Case numbers have dropped, but measles tends to be most active in winter and early spring, said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. With the school year resuming, public health authorities will be watching for more cases.

And they fear that vaccine skeptics may cite the end of the Texas outbreak as evidence of alarmism among public health officials."