Orange County Health Care Agency officials on Monday revealed a toddler has been infected with measles, but the virus is not expected to spread because the family isolated as it was contagious.
Nationally, 1,514 cases of measles have been reported with 23 new ones in the past couple of weeks, officials said.
“Measles is a highly contagious virus that can cause severe illness such as pneumonia, brain swelling and even death, especially in young children who are not protected,” said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the county’s health officer. “In recent years, approximately one in eight people diagnosed with measles in the U.S. have required hospitalization. Among children under 5, that number rises to one in five.”
Symptoms include fever, cough, irritated teary eyes and a rash that usually starts on the head. The virus is highly contagious as it spreads through the air and from direct contact with those infected.
Contagiousness starts about four days before a rash and four days after it appears.
Anyone with symptoms is encouraged to call a doctor first before going out because it is so contagious.
Doctors say the best way to protect from measles is by getting a shot.
UC Irvine epidemiologist Andrew Noymer noted that the toddler who was infected had been traveling domestically.
“We’ve had these outbreaks before from a traveler, but it’s been an international traveler and now it’s a traveler from the U.S. … It’s a sign of the times,” Noymer said of recent domestic outbreaks such as in Texas.
Vaccine hesitancy is increasing spread of the disease, he said.
“We have measles transmission nowadays when we didn’t really used to,” Noymer said, adding since the early part of the century measles was “eliminated from the Western hemisphere. So COVID-19 has unleashed a wave of vaccine hesitancy and we’re seeing that in parents who don’t vaccinate their kids against measles.”
But it’s not “only a U.S. phenomenon. We’re seeing the same thing in Australia, Canada and parts of Europe, which have had measles transmission for some time now.”
But “anyone up to date on their vaccine for measles really doesn’t have anything to worry about. It’s a very effective vaccine.”
While “it’s unfortunate there’s a sick kid in the county and it should be a reminder to all of us to vaccinate our kids it’s not really cause for panic.”
Noymer added, “I’ll be the first to acknowledge we over promised (the effectiveness) on Covid vaccines and in some ways still over promise on them, but the measles vaccine is really better than your Covid or flu shot, so it’s really worth getting.”
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