(Image source from: Politico)

Amid the massive outbreak of measles in the United States since 2000, president Donald Trump on Friday urged Americans to get vaccinated against the highly contagious infectious disease as an outbreak spread across the country, reaching the highest number of cases since 2000.

"Vaccinations are so important," Trump told reporters at the White House. "They have to get their shots." The beginning of the measles outbreak has been tracked down to Orthodox Jews who contracted the extremely infectious disease while traveling overseas. Some of them are from communities that oppose getting vaccinations.

The opposition of quite a lot Jews to vaccinations on what they say are religious grounds is part of a wider "anti-vaxxer" movement in which people turn down to believe in the benefits of vaccinations or claim that the treatment is menacing.

According to officials, the United States has recorded 695 measles cases this year, the highest number since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.

Earlier this month New York's mayor declared a public health emergency in heavily Orthodox Jewish parts of Brooklyn, ordering all the residents to be immunized to combat measles.

The states reporting measles cases are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.

By Sowmya Sangam