TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – As the US approaches recent records for measles cases in a year, those in Leon County might be wondering if cases will spike in North Florida.
Last week, a second measles case in Leon County was added to the Florida Department of Health tracker. The data indicated this case was from a teenager who contracted the disease at an unknown location.
FSU College of Medicine Professor George Rust leads the Center of Medicine and Public Health at the school. He’s advised past measles outbreaks and keeps close tabs on sporadic outbreaks in America.
While he couldn’t comment on the specific situation in Leon County, he told WCTV Monday that local public health officials followed their training to contain the highly infectious disease from spreading further.
“In this case, we saw that prevention worked,” he said. “An individual developed a case of measles, there may have been a secondary exposure case close to that individual and then there was no secondary wave because of a rapid response from public health officials who really know what they’re doing.”
More Tallahassee news:
State health archives showed no previous measles cases in Leon County at least as far back as 2004.
Dr. Rust said while the public shouldn’t be overly concerned about this specific situation, he did say there should be some worry about vaccination rates.
“On one level there is a concern that our vaccination rates have been dropping, so our community is becoming more susceptible to an outbreak than we have ever been in the past,” he said. “Most doctors in America have never seen a case of measles if they trained here.”
Dr. Rust said a two-shot dose of the measles vaccine offers 97% lifetime immunity.
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