As the anti-vaccine movement has brought back measles nationally, Marshall County public health officials announced they have their first case in three years.
Announcing the case Wednesday, Marshall County Health Department Administrator Jackie Franks said the disease is highly contagious. But she said most people aren’t at risk because they’ve received the MMR vaccine as babies.
“Individuals that should be concerned are if they don’t know their vaccination status, if they’re not sure, they don’t remember, some people have, like myself, I came from another state to live in Indiana, and may not remember what their vaccination status is, we may be able to look that up here at the health department,” Franks says..
So far there have been 117 cases in Indiana, including three in Elkhart County, one in Kosciusko County, and 28 in Lagrange County, where most of the population is Amish. Pennsylvania, with the nation’s largest Amish population, has over 1,400 cases. Surveys have shown that only about 25% of Amish people get the measles vaccine, compared to over 90% in the general population.
Because measles is so contagious, Franks urges people with symptoms to call a doctor before showing up at an urgent care or emergency room. She says those symptoms include…
Franks says symptoms include “...high fever, cough, runny nose, read, watery eyes, small white spots inside the mouth, and a rash that typically begins on the face and spreads to the rest of the body.”
