Report: 84% of Chicago’s Measles Cases Linked to Venezuelan Migrants

A CDC report has traced the majority of recent measles cases in Chicago to unvaccinated migrants from Venezuela.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has linked 84% of Chicago’s measles cases to the recent influx of illegal migrants from Venezuela. According to the report by Yahoo/Bloomberg, these cases were primarily found in unvaccinated individuals, traced back to a single migrant boy who arrived in Chicago with the disease, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Chicago health authorities acted swiftly when the boy was taken from a migrant shelter in the Pilsen neighborhood to a hospital on February 27. By May 13, 57 cases of measles were identified among migrants living in the shelter. While most cases were traced to Venezuelan migrants, additional cases were linked to individuals from Peru, Ecuador, and Chile.

The Pilsen shelter has housed approximately 2,100 people since February. The 57 measles cases included 30 women and 27 men, with patients ranging from six months to 49 years old.

As of May 16, the CDC reported a total of 139 measles cases across 21 U.S. states, with the majority in Illinois, particularly the Chicago area. This represents a significant increase from previous years, with only 13 cases in 2020, 49 in 2021, 58 in 2023, and a spike of 121 cases in 2022.

CNN: "Three measles cases have been linked to a migrant shelter in Chicago…A team from the CDC is now on the ground in an effort to curb the spread of the highly contagious virus." pic.twitter.com/F9mVJLLftN

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) March 13, 2024

Despite the direct connection to migrant cases, the Chicago health commissioner assured residents that there is no immediate threat of a wider outbreak. However, Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez criticized the city’s handling of the situation, arguing that the outbreak could have been prevented by enforcing vaccination requirements for all migrants.

“This is a crisis we could have avoided, just like with the measles, if we had simply instituted the American standard of vaccines upon all of those migrants being shipped to the City of Chicago,” Lopez said. “Many of these individuals come with children, they are in our schools, and all of those vaccination requirements that our kids are responsible for are waived for the migrant asylum seeker children. And that is putting people, families, and communities at risk.”