SAN ANTONIO – Near Odessa, Texas, the Ector County Health Department confirmed an infant too young to receive the Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccine became the first case of measles.
The MMR vaccine protects everyone from measles. It is given in two doses to children between the ages of one and six.
Doctor Pedro Chavez of North Central Baptist Hospital says mothers who were vaccinated against measles as children transfer some of that immunity to their newborns.
That protection, plus the act of breastfeeding, continues to provide immunity to babies until they are about six to nine months old, he said.
“The problem is that now we’ve seen the first wave of moms that are not protected because they were not vaccinated, and they were protected by the herd immunity of most people (who) have been vaccinated. Having babies that are not protected. Those babies are very susceptible to the disease,” he said.
Children who receive the first dose of the MMR vaccine are 95 percent protected, he said.
“They have about 95% protection. So this is very high. But measles is extremely contagious. So the decision to give a second dose of the vaccine was based on the fact that because it’s so contagious, you have to vaccinate basically ten people to protect ten people. You vaccinated nine, you still have one susceptible person,” he said.
Chavez is strongly urging women who plan to get pregnant to get the vaccine before they do so.
“It can be very dangerous in a small proportion of people or babies. So the disease for the most is benign,” he said. “The problem is that it is so contagious that you infect so many people that those numbers that would be negligible if there’s a disease that doesn’t transmit so easily. Now (it has) become huge. If you have 1 million people sick, but only 5% will die. That’s a lot of people. Just 50,000 babies that will die."
He says to talk to your child’s pediatrician about getting the vaccine before your baby is 12 months old.