Measles outbreak traced to sick unvaxed child that Moo sent to daycare anyway January 11, 2024 | Registered: 18 years ago Posts: 10,136 |
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At least eight people have been diagnosed with measles in an outbreak that started last month in the Philadelphia area. The most recent two cases were confirmed on Monday.
The outbreak began after a child who'd recently spent time in another country was admitted to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) with an infection, which was subsequently identified as measles. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health considers the case to be "imported" but did not say from where.
The disease then spread to three other people at CHOP, two of whom were already hospitalized there for other reasons.
Two of those infected at the hospital were a parent and child. The child had not been vaccinated and the parent was offered medication usually given to unvaccinated people that can prevent infection after exposure to measles, but refused it, the Philadelphia Inquirer first reported.
Despite quarantine instructions, the child was sent to day care on Dec. 20 and 21, the health department said.
At that day care facility, called Multicultural Education Station, four more people got infected. A day care staff member said its administrator was unavailable for comment.
Health officials in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, warned on Friday that a person who'd been exposed to measles visited two healthcare facilities there on Jan. 3, which in turn might have exposed others. No cases have been confirmed in the county, however.
None of the people in Philadelphia who've been diagnosed was immune to measles, the city's health department said, which means they either never got a measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine or had not contracted measles in the past. The health department declined to offer specifics about the patients' ages or vaccination status, however.
The outbreak has led four people to be admitted to the hospital in addition to the two who were already hospitalized, the department said.