Florida’s measles response flouts disease prevention science: vaccines | Top Vip News

In mid-February, a measles outbreak began at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County, South Florida. There are now at least nine cases in the county and an additional one in Polk County in Central Florida.

Several public health researchers say Florida’s current response to the outbreak runs counter to well-established public health guidelines. The surgeon general of florida, Dr. José LadapoSo far, it has not urged parents of unvaccinated children at school with the outbreak to vaccinate their children or quarantine them. in a letter of February 20Ladapo left the decision of sending their children to school in the hands of parents.

“I’m baffled by this,” he says. Dr Ali Khan, dean of public health at the University of Nebraska. “I have never heard of a general surgeon who has not at least advocated for best public health practices.”

Khan says disobeying science-based guidelines is dangerous. “If you undermine confidence in public health, including vaccination and public health measures, you put increasing numbers of people at risk of contracting these diseases that we no longer see,” he says.

Measles is a highly infectious disease, says Dr. Marco Plescia, medical director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “I mean, you can walk by someone and get measles if they have it. It’s one of the most infectious diseases we know of.”

And when people who are not vaccinated or have no prior immunity are exposed to it, up to 9 in 10 will get measles. according to CDC.

State data shows that about 8% of kindergartners in Broward County are not vaccinated against measles.

“If you’ve been vaccinated, if your children are vaccinated, you don’t have to worry about that. [The risk] is actually for a small proportion of people whose children are not vaccinated,” Plescia says, “but 8% are [still] many children, and the risk is that we could see many of those children get sick.

Measles has been around for a long time: it has been studied for more than a century. And there are clear measures to take to contain an outbreak, he says Dr. Scott RivkeesBrown University public health professor: “If you have an outbreak, try to get it [unvaccinated] vaccinated people within three days of exposure,” he says.

And because people can spread the virus even if they don’t have symptoms, he says, people who are unvaccinated and have been exposed should quarantine for 21 days.

Rivkees is the former surgeon general of Florida. And that’s the advice Florida would get, if he were still in office.

But Rivkees left in 2021 and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Ladapo to the position. Ladapo was part of a group who pushed unproven COVID treatments before he took office. And as surgeon general, he refused to wear masks and discouraged people from getting COVID vaccines.

Rivkees worries that skepticism about COVID vaccines may be spreading to another potentially deadly disease.

“We’ve seen an incredible attack on vaccines in recent years,” he says. “[Now] we are seeing parents who are do not vaccinate your children“There are parents who believe that getting the vaccine, for example, will actually cause measles, when it won’t.”

And when it comes to measles, that reluctance to get vaccinated could lead to unnecessary suffering and even risk of death. Although measles is rare in the United States due to high vaccination rates, it can be serious.

A mild case of measles can involve have a rash, diarrhea and dehydration. In some cases, it can turn into pneumonia. In rare cases, it can cause inflammation of the brain, which can cause children to lose their sight or hearing.

At the end of 2022, there was a outbreak in Columbus, Ohio, where 85 people fell ill with measles and 40% of them ended up in the hospital.

It can also be deadly. Before the vaccine, the US I was seeing 500 deaths for measles every year.

Measles was declared removed from the US in the year 2000. there are still cases, but they usually appear when people travel to other countries and bring it back. The United States should be able to maintain that “elimination” status, as long as each measles outbreak is contained within a year. according to CDC.

So far this year, there are There have been at least 35 cases in 15 states.. Those numbers are likely to continue to rise, especially in parts of the country with low vaccination rates. And experts say that when state and local authorities ignore long-standing public health advice, it could lead to more illness in more communities.

“This is a very, very serious disease and it is completely preventable with vaccines,” Khan says.