Largest Measles Outbreak In 2 Decades Cost NYC $394K, Study Finds

NEW YORK, NY — Leaving kids unvaccinated comes with a hefty price. A 2013 Brooklyn measles outbreak fueled by parents' failure to inoculate their kids cost the Department of Health nearly $400,000, a new study found.

A total of 58 people — none of whom had received the measles vaccine — contracted the preventable but potentially deadly disease in the city's largest outbreak since 1992, according to the study published Monday in the JAMA Pediatrics medical journal.

The city's response to the outbreak cost $394,448 in personnel time, testing, travel and other expenses, the study found, a figure within the range of costs for other large outbreaks in the U.S. More than 80 city workers spent a total of 10,054 hours responding to and controlling the rash of measles, the study says.

"Measles vaccine refusals or delays can lead to large outbreaks following measles importations, with costly and resource intensive response and containment," says the study authored by the Department of Health's Jennifer B. Rosen and two others.

Measles spread across two Brooklyn neighborhoods from March to June 2013 after a single kid returned to New York from London infected with the disease, according to the study. The outbreak reportedly impacted Borough Park and Williamsburg.

All of the 58 patients were Orthodox Jewish and none had been vaccinated, even though nearly 80 percent were old enough for immunization, the study says. The group ranged in age from zero to 32 years old and included 12 children younger than a year old, according to the study.

More than 70 percent of those patients came from eight extended families, according to the study. The outbreak exposed more than 3,300 other people to measles, though about two thirds of them showed evidence of immunity to the disease, the study says.

The "insular nature of the affected community," along with the city's high overall vaccination rate, helped prevent a much larger outbreak, the study says.

The city's response to the outbreak took resources away from other "public health activities" and required nearly a third of the staff involved to perform duties outside their regular job descriptions, the study says.

"The significant burden and consequences of measles outbreaks as well as other public health emergencies underscore the importance of continued support for a robust and flexible public health infrastructure for health departments," the study reads.

(Lead image: A child recieves a measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox vaccine in Berlin, Germany in February 2015. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)