California has 119 cases of measles in state

Public health officials said that six more cases of measles had been confirmed in California, bringing to 119 the total number of people infected by a strain of the virus that has also been linked to a large outbreak in the Philippines.

More than 150 people across the United States have been diagnosed with measles, many of them linked to the wave of illness that authorities believe began when an infected person from out of the country visited Disneyland in late December.

California Department of Public Health researchers, in a report to federal officials released on Friday, said that specimens from 30 of the state`s measles patients had been genotyped and that all were of the same strain that has caused an outbreak in the Philippines.

That same genotype has been detected in at least 14 countries and six other U.S. states in the last six months, the researchers said, and the source of the illness that sickened visitors at the Disney theme park has not been identified.