The Alabama Department of Public Health announced Sunday that it is investigating a suspected case of measles in Lee County. If the Lee County patient is confirmed to have measles, it would be the first case in Alabama this year.
While details are necessarily sparse due to privacy concerns and legal requirements, the ADPH said the person who may be affected is an “unvaccinated person who was not yet eligible for vaccine.”
The ADPH’s website states that the first dose of the measles vaccine is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months of age.
The number of measles cases and resulting deaths plummeted dramatically following the initial rollout of the measles vaccine in the 1960s, but there have been several major outbreaks in recent years following a dip in the number of children who receive the vaccine.
So far this year, there have been 1,168 cases of measles and 3 confirmed deaths according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who disputes characterizations of himself as “anti-vax,” posted in early April that “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine” during a Texas outbreak.
However, he has also been repeatedly criticized for downplaying the severity of measles and understating the efficacy and safety of the measles vaccine.
“Measles vaccine is safe and highly effective in producing lifelong immunity against this potentially deadly disease,” Dr. Karen Landers, a pediatrician and the ADPH chief medical officer, wrote. “Our citizens can protect themselves and others by ensuring that all eligible persons are vaccinated.”
On average, three out of every 1,000 people with measles die. Roughly 500 people died of measles every year before the release of the vaccine.
Research suggests that 19 out of 20 people being vaccinated against measles is typically enough to ward off measles outbreaks. But public health officials have suggested recent fears surrounding vaccinations, exacerbated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic driving down vaccination rates are likely responsible for this year’s outbreaks.
Out of the more than 1,000 cases of measles so far this year, 95 percent of patients were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status. The most recent CDC data shows that only 87.9 percent of 35-month-old children born in Alabama in 2021 have received one or more doses of the MMR vaccine.
The ADPH stated, though, that it is not presently worried about major outbreaks in Alabama. The department’s statement reads: “Given that most eligible Alabamians are vaccinated against measles, the risk for an outbreak remains low, but some persons will need to be vaccinated as part of this investigation.”
