A seventh case, the first in a child under age 5, follows the state’s controversial surgeon general’s decision to let parents decide whether to quarantine children or keep them in school.

The Florida measles outbreak is expanding. On Friday, health officials in Broward County confirmed a seventh case of the virus, a child under age 5.

The patient is the youngest so far to be infected in the outbreak, and the first to be identified outside of Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, near Fort Lauderdale.

It’s unknown what connection the youngest measles case has to the school, but the spread beyond school-age kids was expected.

Cases are “not going to stay contained just to that one school, not when a virus is this infectious,” said Dr. David Kimberlin, co-director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

  • @A_Random_Idiot
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    249 months ago

    I wouldnt be shocked if we’re at 50+ cases in 2 weeks.

    • @Paraponera_clavata
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      159 months ago

      Yep! Measles is sooooo contagious and takes a week or two to show symptoms.

      50+ kids already have it now.

      • @NotMyOldRedditName
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        9 months ago

        Anyone who didn’t go home and isolate immediately is probably already infected if they weren’t vaccinated