Three more measles cases were confirmed late Tuesday night, bringing the total to eight. The Illinois Department of Public Health and other state agencies said they were mobilizing to help contain the outbreak in Chicago and Cook County.
CDPH Director Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige said, “We are seeing new cases every day, but this is not like the COVID-19 pandemic. The vast majority of Chicagoans are vaccinated against measles. “Since I have been vaccinated, I am not at high risk,” he said.
At the city's largest migrant shelter on South Halsted Street in Pilsen, fully vaccinated asylum seekers are working, while unvaccinated and recently vaccinated people remain indoors and monitored for symptoms. Must.
Dr. Lamar Hasbrouck, CEO of the Cook County Department of Public Health, said nearly 100 potentially infected people are currently being traced.
This is a situation brought about by the measles outbreak here, said public health ambassador Maria Perez, who she meets with daily. “I'm worried because they're not getting medical care,” said Perez, who has supported asylum seekers through her Southwest Collective organization.
The outbreak at the Pilsen migrant shelter attracted the attention of the Centers for Disease Control and shed new light on the importance of measles vaccination.
“If you're not vaccinated and you happen to share a room with someone who has measles, you have a 90% chance of getting the virus,” Dr. Bessie Guivarghese, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Northwestern Medicine, told NBC Chicago. .
But MMR, or measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, could dramatically reduce that chance, Guivarghese said. The CDC recommends administering the drug in two doses. The first time is between 12 and 15 months old, and the second time is between 4 and 6 years old.
“Once you get the first vaccination, the protection rate is around 92 to 95 percent,” Dr. Hasbrouck said. “It’s up to 97% if you get both shots, so it’s very effective and very safe.”
But Dr. Guivarghese said vaccination gaps are increasing, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Vaccination rates are below the 95% herd immunity we want,” she said. “When we get below that 95%, we tend to get anxious.”
Certain adults who have a weakened immune system or are receiving some cancer treatments may also be at risk.
For those people, there are blood tests they can take to check their immunity and they can get another shot if needed, Guivarghese said.
“They're taking action by vaccinating them. They're taking action by screening them. But we're a little too slow,” Perez said. “We should have done that from the beginning… There would have been zero infections.”
The CDC is currently reporting measles cases in 17 different states.
