Health officials on Thursday announced anyone who was traveling on the 418 bus to Beit Shemesh at midnight on Saturday night should be checked for measles.

It appears health officials have learned that an infant on board the bus was infected with the illness.

Meanwhile, in the United States, measles outbreaks in at least seven states are expected to produce more cases in 2008 than in any other recent year, today’s NY Times reported. Quoting Federal Health Officials, the Times reported that most of the cases have occurred in people who were never vaccinated.

There were 64 cases from January through April 25, more than in all of 2006 and the highest number during that four-month period since 2001. None have yet proved fatal, but officials said they expected the total to keep rising.

The largest outbreak, 22 cases, is under way in New York City, mainly in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, where it was most likely introduced by travelers from other countries, including Israel and Belgium.

“There may be more cases,” said Dr. Jane R. Zucker, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Immunization in the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Dr. Zucker said the New York outbreak was still being investigated.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel / Dov Gordon – YWN NYC)