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Measles cases are still rising in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. The Trump administration ended funding to a global network of labs that test for the disease. NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel looked into what could happen next.
GABRIELLE EMANUEL, BYLINE: In much of the world, when a doctor sees a patient with a fever and rash and suspects measles, they send a blood sample off to a specialized lab to get tested. Kate O'Brien is with the World Health Organization.
KATE O'BRIEN: And that laboratory network - which is over 700 labs around the world - has been fully supported through the generosity and the technical support of the U.S. government.
EMANUEL: Funded by the U.S. but run by the WHO. In January, the U.S. decided to withdraw from the WHO and pulled the funding, including for this network of labs.
O'BRIEN: And so this lab network is now under severe threat of collapse, and it would mean many, many, more outbreaks, many, many more deaths, and many, many more cases.
EMANUEL: A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said funding to support domestic measles labs continues, but not detecting and controlling cases in other countries is a problem for the U.S., says William Moss of Johns Hopkins University. He says the measles virus does not circulate naturally in America anymore. These days...
WILLIAM MOSS: All measles outbreaks in the United States are starting with the importations from outside.
EMANUEL: The virus arrives through travelers. For example, a measles case in Maryland earlier this month was in someone who had just returned from an international trip. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tom Frieden is a former CDC director. He says, if the Trump administration decides it does not want to fund global disease control, then it should have a transition plan.
TOM FRIEDEN: When you stop things suddenly, bad things happen. This network is a backbone of health defense. If it collapses, the U.S. and the rest of the world will be flying blind.
EMANUEL: The WHO says it's looking for other sources of funding for the labs. The price tag? Eight million dollars a year. Jennifer Nuzzo says that's a great financial deal since quickly detecting a case is much cheaper than fighting an outbreak. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases, so she says outbreaks can get out of control quickly. Nuzzo directs the Pandemic Center at Brown University.
JENNIFER NUZZO: The amount of resources it requires to control measles outbreaks is extraordinary.
EMANUEL: Like emergency vaccination campaigns, they're very costly, she says, as are hospitalizations for measles patients. She says think of a measles outbreak as a fire. Like right now, there's a fire raging in Texas, in New Mexico, in Congo and elsewhere, and that global laboratory network...
NUZZO: You can think of it like the smoke detectors that tell us where the fires are so that we know how to respond to it.
EMANUEL: She says it's like the U.S. has decided to unplug smoke detectors all over the world.
Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR News.
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