At least 82 children in Ohio contracted measles: most of them are not vaccinated

Measles is spreading in Ohio even two months after cases were first identified. As of the morning of December 29, central Ohio had 82 people infected with measles, officials said. All patients are children, writes CBS News.

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The Columbus, Ohio Department of Health first announced an investigation into the outbreak on November 9 after four confirmed cases of measles were linked to a children's facility in Franklin County. Only unvaccinated patients who have never traveled have become infected, officials said. Columbus Public Health Commissioner Dr. Mouse Roberts urged parents to vaccinate their children.

By the end of the month, there were new cases in several more locations, including the Polaris mall, a church, and a grocery store.

Since then, the number of infected people has risen sharply, and as of the morning of December 29, the department has already reported 82 cases, including 32 hospitalizations. These are mostly children aged 17 and under, with almost 94% of them being infants and toddlers under the age of 5. So far, no children have died as a result of the outbreak.

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It is known that all children affected by the outbreak are partially vaccinated, that is, they received only one dose of the two needed to prevent measles, mumps and rubella, known as MMR. True, four patients still have an unknown vaccination status. Children are recommended to receive the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second dose at 4 to 6 years of age.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles symptoms (usually fever, cough, runny nose, and watery eyes) appear within a week or two of exposure to the virus, and a rash appears three to five days after they appear.

But measles is not just a small rash. Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and toddlers.

The disease is dangerous with very serious complications, such as inflammation of the lungs (pneumonia), inflammation of the middle ear (otitis media), and sometimes inflammation of the brain (encephalitis). Measles is easily spread through the air when someone coughs or sneezes. People can get sick when they come into contact with the mucus or saliva of an infected person.

At the same time, there is no specific treatment for measles, drugs are prescribed based on symptoms, there are no special antibiotics or antiviral agents that would kill the measles virus. The sick are treated according to the general rules in case of colds, and if complications arise, they are hospitalized.

The MMR vaccine is critical to preventing the spread of measles. 90% of unvaccinated people exposed to the virus will become infected. Approximately 1 in 5 people with measles ends up in the hospital.

The Ohio outbreak has already surpassed the number of cases reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2020 and 2021 combined. It is likely to account for the bulk of nationwide cases in 2022.

Dr. Shannon Dillon, a primary care pediatrician at Riley Children's Health in Indiana, said most of the outbreaks seen in the last decade "are clustered among unvaccinated people."

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“When there is a certain group of unvaccinated people who tend to communicate with each other, there is always a chance that measles will spread quite quickly,” she noted.

Misinformation about vaccines and a lack of primary health care providers have left many parents hesitant to vaccinate their children against viruses like measles, she said. Vaccines remain "one of the most important measures" to prevent the spread of the disease.

“Viruses like measles killed millions of children around the world before a vaccine was available. And these are very safe vaccines,” Dillon said. “The measles vaccine became available in 1963 and has really had very little change since then. So we have decades of data showing how safe it is. And if you have questions, you should talk to your child's pediatrician."

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