The most contagious disease in human history continues to spread in Israel and the world

Even this week, the measles epidemic – the most contagious disease known to mankind – continues to spread in Israel and the world. The Ministry of Health knows of at least 2,730 measles patients in the State of Israel since the beginning of the current outbreak, and another unknown number of unreported patients. Nearly 900 of the patients required hospitalization due to the severity of their illness. As of Monday this week, January 19, 2026, 16 patients were actually hospitalized, six of them in the intensive care units.

dictation Originally published on the Davidson Institute for Science Education website

Almost all the confirmed patients are minors. 1,623 of them – about sixty percent of all patients – are toddlers between the ages of 1 and 4. The number of deceased has not changed since the previous update and stands at 13. All but one are unvaccinated infants and toddlers with no previous underlying illnesses.

Measles in South Carolina in the United States is spreading rapidly. Until Tuesday this week we counted 646 patientsafter another 212 new patients were verified. In doing so, the outbreak is approaching in giant steps the size of the large outbreak of the disease that occurred in Texas last year, and led to the death of two girls, and another adult patient in nearby New Mexico. That eruption, which ended in August 2025, was the largest in the United States in decades.

The heart of the outbreak is in Spartanburg County, which borders North Carolina. The disease is spreading in elementary schools and middle schools, where quite a few unvaccinated students study. 563 of the patients were not vaccinated at all, 12 were vaccinated in one dose, and the immune status of 58 of them is unknown. 13 of the patients were fully vaccinated, which indicates many exposures to the patients, since the effectiveness of the vaccine is high and only one to three out of every hundred vaccinated may still get measles if exposed to the virus. If the number of patients continues to rise at this rapid rate, this new outbreak will soon overtake the one in Texas in scope.

As is the way of rapid outbreaks, South Carolina’s has already sent an infectious branch to Washington state. Recently, three brothers with measles were discovered there, who came into contact with a family from South Carolina who visited the country during the holidays. The three children are the first patients in the state of Washington since 2023. In addition to them, an unvaccinated student from another district in the state was also reported Ovary with measles too.

Even in Mexico the measles does not stop, and in the first two weeks of the year 506 new patients were diagnosed in it. This number indicates that there is no improvement in the state of measles morbidity in the country. The year 2025 ended with 6,427 confirmed patients, and 24 of them died from the disease.

The norovirus outbreak in South Koreawhich began in early November 2025, has now reached the highest level recorded in the country in the last five years. In the first two weeks of the year, 548 patients were diagnosed there with the dangerous intestinal virus, most of them toddlers and children.

The norovirus Causes severe vomiting and diarrhea. This is a very resistant virus, which can be contracted through contact with a patient, consumption of contaminated food or water, and even by contact with a contaminated surface after which you accidentally touch your mouth or eat something with your hands. One of the difficulties in dealing with it is that even after the patients have already recovered from the disease, they still continue to spread for about another two weeks, during which time additional people may become infected with it.

The virus is common in many countries of the world, especially in the winter season. The best way to avoid infection is to maintain good hygiene, wash your hands with soap and water and be sure to drink clean water and eat food that has been thoroughly washed or that has been cooked at a temperature of above 63 degrees Celsiuswhich is enough to destroy the viruses. Those who have already contracted norovirus are not immune to re-infection. The virus has many different strains, and even if a person has developed immunity against one of them, it will not necessarily protect him from others.

Another viral disease that is transmitted mainly through contaminated food or close contact with patients is hepatitis A. The disease Recently spreading in Taiwananother country in the Far East. In 2025, the nine-year history of hepatitis A will be broken there. Most of the patients (more than eighty percent) are men, and most of them are young adults aged 20-40. The disease can cause severe hepatitis, and there is an effective vaccine that is given today as part of the routine vaccinations for babies.

Taiwan indeed Vaccines against hepatitis A since the ninetiesbut only in 2018 was the vaccination program expanded to the entire island. This may be the reason why most of the victims in the current outbreak are adults, who were probably not vaccinated in childhood.