ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — As the country is seeing a measles outbreak, the Florida Department of Health in Orange County (DOH Orange) will be promoting the benefits of immunizations for children during the 25th anniversary of National Infant Immunization Week.
- Agency wants to educate people, parents about benefits of vaccinations
- Currently, there are 626 cases of measles in 22 states, including Florida
- CDC: Vaccines for Your Children
- RELATED: Florida Health Officials: Stay Up to Date with Measles Vaccine
The agency stated that National Infant Immunization Week, celebrating its 25th year, is a way to educate people and parents about the benefits of vaccinating children from birth to two years old.
| What Are Measles? |
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| Measles is a highly infectious viral disease that while usually seen as a childhood disease, can be contracted by people of any age. Some of the common symptoms of measles are:
Learn more about measles here. |
"It is a call to action for parents, caregivers and health care providers to ensure that all children are protected from birth against 14 serious childhood illnesses," stated the agency in a news release.
DOH Orange stated that it has worked with various public and private partners to update the State Health Improvement Plan, with one of the goals to increase immunization access for pregnant mothers and infants as well as to vaccine-preventable diseases in children and teens.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that from Jan. 1, 2019 to April 19, 2019, there were 626 cases of measles confirmed in 22 states (including Florida), an increase of 71 cases from the week before.
"This is the second-greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since measles was eliminated in 2000, second only to the 667 cases reported during all of 2014," the CDC stated.
The Florida DOH stated that as of April 17, 2019, there has been one case of measles reported to the agency.
The CDC mentioned that some of the common reasons for the increase of measles are people who traveled to other countries, contracted the disease and brought it back.
Or measles are being spread in pockets of communities in the U.S. that have unvaccinated people.
"The majority of people who got measles were unvaccinated," revealed the CDC.