Measles outbreak could trigger rare travel ban

As measles cases in the USA continue to rise beyond their highest level in a quarter-century, officials pondered a drastic step – forbidding those believed to be infected from flying.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 60 new individual instances of measles in Monday’s update, bringing this year’s tally to 940. It’s the largest total since 1994, falling just short of the 963 cases reported that year.

Efforts to fight off a disease that has spread to 26 states led state and local officials to consider requesting the imposition of a rarely used travel ban on infectious passengers, The Washington Post reported.

Eight people from five states were warned the federal government could put them on a Do Not Board list managed by the CDC, and they canceled their travel plans, the newspaper said.

Such tactics may strike some as heavy-handed, but they have been validated through decades of case law, said Mark Ustin, head of the health care compliance and lobbying practices at the New York law firm Farrell Fritz.

Ustin said the courts have long sided with the government’s authority to protect its citizens’ health, as is the case in mandating vaccines or taking other measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

“There are lots of areas where you could argue about the state’s police power versus a person’s right to bodily integrity or a person’s right to religious freedom, but when it comes to mandatory vaccinations, that’s one of the areas where the courts have been very clear that this is perfectly acceptable,” Ustin said.

Ustin said the the threat of a health travel ban would probably dissuade passengers from attempting to get on a plane.