At least 82 youngsters have now contracted measles in central Ohio. State officials claimed that children under the age of 5 made up the majority of those affected by the outbreak.
32 children have been admitted to hospitals since information about the first measles cases was released by Columbus Public Health last month.
The first four instances involved unvaccinated kids from Franklin County, Ohio, who had no prior travel history and were connected to a daycare center.
Four of the affected children’s vaccination records were unavailable, but the other five were all at least partially unvaccinated, having received no doses or only one dose of the two-shot measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR).
“Measles isn’t just a little rash,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. “Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and young children.”
According to CBS News, Dr. Mysheika Roberts, the commissioner of Columbus’ public health, has advised parents to vaccinate their kids.
Officials in charge of public health advise giving children their first MMR shot between 12 and 15 months of age and their second dose between ages 4 and 6.
Health officials in Columbus cautioned that 90% of unvaccinated individuals exposed to measles will contract the disease. 20% of them end up being hospitalized for the infection.
According to the CDC, measles symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose, and watery eyes and appear one to two weeks after exposure. A rash normally appears three to five days after these symptoms.
According to CBS News, the majority of the reported measles cases in the United States for 2022 come from the Ohio epidemic, and the number of cases is already more than the sum of those reported for 2020 and 2021.
As of right now, no children have lost their lives in this outbreak, according to CBS News.
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