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.

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.

  • @[email protected]
    33•9 months ago

    Even if they don’t die now, there’s complications that can kill them that happen 2 months later (for the more dangerous one), or 7-10 years later (for the sneaky one). Measles is a nasty virus and there’s a long list of damn good reasons why everyone who possibly can should be vaccinated against it.

      • @Misconduct
        15•9 months ago

        I don’t see why you couldn’t just get vaccinated. No harm even if you were previously.

        My mom’s record keeping of my vaccinations as a kid was a shit show so I ended up just getting the ones I wasn’t sure about later in life when I found out she might have skipped some 🙄

      • @[email protected]
        4•9 months ago

        I would start with checking out your local health department, or potentially even Planned Parenthood or similar community clinics that offer low-cost primary care services.

      • Drusas
        4•9 months ago

        Getting a titer shouldn’t be very expensive.

        • @[email protected]
          1•9 months ago

          It’s an employer obligation in certain healthcare industries, including working in a hospital for support staff.

          Speaking of which, anyone working a terrible retail job should start applying to hospitals in their area, you’d be surprised how much better pay and benefits can be.

      • @Clent
        3•9 months ago

        Search “{state} vaccination records” for every state you’ve (might) have received in it and hope you don’t live in a shit hole state that doesn’t maintain records