ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Florida Health Department has announced the ninth reported case of measles.
Eight were confirmed at an elementary school in South Florida, but the latest case involves an adult in Polk County.
The outbreak has some people asking questions about immunity and whether vaccines many people had decades ago are still effective.
Physicians say the measles virus is one of the most contagious diseases out there, so even a handful of cases has them on alert.
“We need to be pretty concerned. Measles can be pretty dangerous,” USF Health’s Dr. Jill Roberts said.
Roberts says she understands why measles makes people nervous.
The highly contagious disease can have serious consequences for infants and toddlers, adults over 20, pregnant women and people with a compromised immune system.
“There was an outbreak of measles in the US in 2019. About 10% of everybody involved was actually hospitalized,” Roberts said. “So, unfortunately, we are really used to measles being a disease that causes fever and rash, and tend to forget that it also causes pneumonia, encephalitis, deafness, there's definitely serious consequences of measles.”
All of the measles cases recorded in South Florida had been patients under the age of 14.
But health officials say the latest case is an adult in Polk County between the ages of 20 and 24 who got infected outside Polk County during travel.
It's unclear whether that patient had been vaccinated in the past.
The outbreak has people wondering whether the vaccines they received as kids are still effective.
The short answer, doctors say, is probably yes.
"You may or may not have protection from measles from a shot that you got when you were one-year-old. Back in the 80s, as a recommendation, they started to see information that started to suggest kids needed a second dose. So, by the 90s, we started giving a second measles shot to kids about 4 to 5 years of age," Dr. Juan Dumois, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital said.
"So, if you only had one, and you're an adult, you could benefit from getting a booster now. I think that getting a booster now would be especially important for people if measles makes it into the Tampa Bay area. If we see spread, a couple of cases in our area, then people really need to be thinking about getting boosted if they haven't already had two shots in the past," he continued.
The measles vaccine contains a weakened live virus, so Dr. Dumois says it’s not necessarily recommended for infants, organ transplant patients, or immunocompromised people.
He says it's important to check with your doctor.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has thus far left school attendance decisions to parents, not recommending the vaccine, nor requiring those unvaccinated to stay home.
Physicians we spoke with say they disagree with that approach.
“I think if you follow the CDC guidelines, they do recommend an unvaccinated child who has been exposed to somebody with measles should stay home for at least 21 days,” Dr. Randy Katz with Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital said.
