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Eileen Marty, M.D., professor, Infectious Diseases, at Florida International University’s Herbert
Wertheim College of Medicine, adds that vaccines against the measles and other dangerous
diseases have become even more effective over the past several years. “Not only are vaccines
safe, but they’re safer now than they’ve ever been,” says Dr. Marty. “We have new technologies

for making vaccines that are excellent. They do the job and create the neutralizing antibodies in
your child.”

Dr. Hernandez explains that measles starts out looking like a cold. “Your child will have a cough,

fever, runny nose, red eye or pink eye (conjunctivitis) and sore throat,” she says. “The fever will
likely intensify and then a rash will develop, starting at the head and moving down. It may not
sound so bad at first, but then it can get complicated, especially with pneumonia, which is the
leading cause of death in children who die from measles.”

Emergency physicians in South Florida have not seen many measles cases. Currently, Florida

is not one of the states with outbreaks. State health officials in Washington, New York,
California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Colorado, and Georgia have reported measles
cases exceeding the number of cases they usually see in a year.

Extremely Contagious

“With measles, there’s a very distinct, characteristic rash that happens inside of the cheeks in
the mouth,” says Dr. Mendoza. “If we’ve identified that, we’ll put the child in an isolation room so
that the contagion is reduced as much as possible. There is no cure for measles once you get it.
It’s all supportive care. And I want to reiterate that even in the best and most highly trained

hands and best hospitals, about one to three kids per 1,000 measles cases will die in supportive
care.”

The contagious nature of measles makes vaccinations even more vital, physicians and public

health officials say. Measles spreads much the same way other viruses do, through sneezing,
coughing or touching. In addition to vaccinations, hand-washing is considered the best
protection from contracting any virus.

“For every one person that gets the measles, 18 to 20 will become infected if they’re not
vaccinated” says Dr. Mendoza. “To compare, one person with the flu will infect four other people

who are not vaccinated. In one pre-school class, if one child walks in there with measles and no