California IN BRIEF : ORANGE COUNTY : Cases of Measles on the Rise Again

Orange County health officials are bracing for a resurgence of the measles epidemic that subsided at the end of 1990 but has killed two people since January. A 32-year-old man died in January from complications of the disease, and in February a 2-year-old girl died at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. The child had received some immunizations but not the crucial vaccination for rubella, measles and mumps, according to hospital officials. For the last three years, measles, and in particular red measles, has plagued the county as well as the nation, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Almost half of the measles cases have occurred in California, said William Atkinson, an epidemiologist at the center.