Daycare: Kids May Have Been Exposed in Confirmed Measles Case

If you’re not and you come in contact with measles, there’s a 90 percent chance you will get it, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns. (Photo via CDC)

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An Oakland County daycare center is warning parents their children may have been exposed to measles after the infectious disease was diagnosed in a parent whose child goes there.

WJBK-TV reports the child attends First Presbyterian Hand-in-Hand Early Learning Center in Birmingham, which on Tuesday began notifying parents to watch for symptoms in their children.

Contacted by the TV station, parent Elizabeth Williams said she hadn’t yet received a letter, but expected one in the mail. “My nanny told me about it,” Williams said. “She saw it on social media.

“I’m a little worried about taking him back because I have a newborn. But he’s vaccinated, he should be OK. I’m just worried about the newborn.”

Related:

• Oakland County Health Officials Diagnose Measles in Adult
• Rampant Spread of Whooping Cough Prompts School Closures
• Vaccine Waivers Harder to Get Under New Rules
• More Michigan Parents Refusing Vaccines for Children

Children don’t receive their measles vaccinations until they are a year old, so newborns like Williams’ aren’t protected. The best defense against measles is vaccination, said Dr. Matthew Sims, director of infectious disease research at Beaumont Hospital.

“It’s a virus that spreads through respiratory pathways,” Sims said. “So you cough, you have a runny nose, you sneeze and it spreads. It’s very contagious.”

A spokesperson for the daycare said the school is safe and there are no plans to temporarily close. Children who haven’t been vaccinated should be kept home until Feb. 5, according to the letter being circulated to parents.

“Our first concern is our families and we have taken every precaution we can to protect them during this time and on a daily basis,” daycare officials said.

People Vaccinated Before 1957 Should Get Another Shot

More than 30 Oakland County residents were vaccinated over the weekend at emergency clinics organized after the local case was confirmed Friday, The Oakland Press reports.

Kathy Forzley, manager of the Oakland County Health Division, said senior citizens who were vaccinated against measles before 1957 should get a second shot.

“Before 1957, there were a large number of measles outbreaks. It’s considered that people born before those dates would have a higher exposure to measles, because there was no vaccine then,” she said.

“We recommend you get two vaccinations,”Forzley said. “Five percent of the population who has only received one dose of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella)will still get measles. While those aren’t earth-shattering statistics, we still recommend two.”

“Anti-Vaxxers” Fear Autism

Measles is one of four childhood illnesses making a comeback, due in large part to “anti-vaxxers,” as people in the anti-vaccine movement are called, TIME magazine reports. They’ve got some influential public figures and celebrities on their side who are using their bully pulpits to spread their fears vaccines are full of toxins and cause autism, something the CDC says hasn’t been proven.

The anti-vaccine movement’s growing steam is especially troubling with the recent outbreak of measles.

“If you are unvaccinated and you come in contact with measles, there’s a 90 percent chance you will get it,” CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said.

In Michigan, there were five measles cases last year. Nationally, about 60 cases a year were reported from 2001-12, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health, but last year, the number had skyrocketed to a record 644 cases in 27 U.S. states. The vast majority occurred in people who had never been vaccinated against the virus.

In the first 23 days of January, 68 people from 11 states were reported to have the measles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding most of them are part of a large, ongoing outbreak linked to an amusement park in California.

Measles symptoms normally begin 10-12 days after exposure and include:

• Hard, dry cough
• Sneezing or runny nose
• Watery or red eyes
• Rash that is red, raised, blotchy, starts on face and spreads to trunk, arms, and leg
• Fever which rises when rash appears (101o f or higher)

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