NY health officials urge measles vaccinations for kids amid rise in cases

New York health officials are urging parents to get their children vaccinated against the measles if they haven’t yet, and advising health care providers to test for the disease if a patient comes in with symptoms, such as a high fever or rash.

The advisory comes as measles cases are rising in parts of the United States, and have started to pop up in New York and New Jersey. An unvaccinated child died of measles in Texas, which is experiencing an outbreak of the disease. It’s the first such death in the United States in a decade.

Two cases of the measles have been confirmed in New York City so far this year, according to the city health department. Both patients were infants under 12 months old and the cases were unrelated, according to Chantal Gomez, a spokesperson for the city health department.

Gomez added that the infants had not yet gotten their first dose of the MMR vaccine guarding against measles, mumps and rubella, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends children get between 12 and 15 months.

In New Jersey, a measles patient who recently traveled abroad had close contact with two other people who were later diagnosed with the disease, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. All three of the New Jersey patients were unvaccinated.

“If we don’t learn from history we’re doomed to repeat it,” New York State Health Commissioner James McDonald cautioned in a public service announcement released this week. “If your child has not had the measles vaccine or you’re simply not sure, contact your health care provider today.”

Signs of the highly infectious disease can include a high fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes, with a rash typically appearing three to five days later, according to the state health department. Measles is spread through the air when someone sneezes or coughs, according to the CDC.

Prior to the development of a measles vaccine in the 1960s, about 3 million to 4 million people were infected with the disease each year and almost all children got it by the age of 15, according to the CDC. Following years of widespread vaccination, the disease was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000.

But it has returned in recent years, including in an outbreak in New York City that infected more than 600 people between 2018 and 2019.

In New York City, 98% of children have received the two recommended doses of the MMR vaccine by kindergarten, according to Gomez of the city health department. But only about 81% of 2-year-olds have received their first dose of the vaccine as recommended, similar to the rest of the state. State health officials raised concerns that the rate falls far below the 95% vaccination rate needed for herd immunity.