Measles is spreading among children in Ohio two months after cases were first discovered. As of Thursday morning, central Ohio had at least 82 cases of measles, all of them children.
Columbus Public Health First announced a survey The outbreak occurred on November 9 after four measles cases were confirmed to have been linked to a childcare facility in Franklin County. All of these cases are unvaccinated children with no travel history, according to officials, and Dr. Mysheika Roberts of the Columbus Public Health Commission asked her parents to vaccinate her children. urged to
By the end of the month, the cases were linked as follows: some more sitesPolaris mall, church, grocery store and more.
The number has skyrocketed since, and as of Thursday morning, Columbus Public Health reported at least 82, including 32 hospitalizations. All of these cases are in children under the age of 17, and health data show that nearly 94% of these cases have infected infants, infants, and children up to 5 years of age. No children have died in the outbreak.
So far, all children affected by the outbreak appear to have been at least partially unimmunized. This means that although they have received only one of the two doses required for the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, known as MMR, four children are still uncertain of their vaccination status. It is recommended that children receive her first dose between the ages of 12-15 months and her second dose between the ages of 4-6 years.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles symptoms such as high fever, cough, runny nose, and watery eyes usually appear within 1 to 2 weeks after exposure to the virus, with a rash appearing 3 to 5 days after onset. .
But ‘measles is more than just a rash’ According to the CDC“Measles is especially dangerous for babies and young children.”
Columbus health officials have warned that the MMR vaccine is important in preventing the spread of measles. About 1 in 5 measles patients is hospitalized.
Ohio Outbreak Already case beyond Together, the number of cases reported to the CDC in 2020 and 2021 appears to account for the majority of the national caseload in 2022.
Dr. Shannon Dillon, primary care pediatrician at Riley Children’s Health, Indiana, said: told CBS News this week Most of the outbreaks we’ve seen in the last decade have “concentrated in unvaccinated people”.
“It looks like it’s still in the early stages, so it’s hard to say at this point what this will do,” she said. In any case, there is always the possibility that it will spread quite rapidly.”
Misinformation about vaccines and the lack of primary health care providers make many parents reluctant to vaccinate their children against viruses like measles. It remains one of the most important things.
“Something like measles caused the deaths of millions of children worldwide before a vaccine was available. And these are very safe vaccines,” Dillon said. “Measles vaccines have been available since 1963 and have needed very little change since then. So we have decades of data showing how safe they are. If you have any questions , you need to speak with confidence… to your child’s family doctor.”
