New York, – The Westchester Health Department, north of New York City, reported Wednesday about eight new cases of measles in that county, six of which are siblings and all unvaccinated, ages six months and fourteen years.
None of the children attend public schools or child care centers, according to a statement from the county Health Department.
It also indicates that they work with the children’s family and medical service providers to determine where they got the measles virus.
However, according to the statement, they believe they may have been exposed to measles in Rockland County, also in upstate New York, or in the Brooklyn district, where there is an ongoing outbreak of the disease and It has decreed a health emergency.
The statement does not indicate whether the children belong to an Orthodox Jewish family and according to the spokesperson, Catherine Cioffi, is information that for reasons of privacy can not be disclosed.
The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, declared on Tuesday a “public health emergency” due to the epidemic of measles that is lived in the city since last October, specifically among Orthodox Jewish communities based in Brooklyn.
As part of that measure, people who are not vaccinated against the disease in the Williamsburg neighborhood – where the largest Jewish population in the city is concentrated – will have to be immunized with inoculation against measles to protect the rest of the community and help to reduce the epidemic, according to the mayor.
In Rockland County, the measles outbreak led local authorities to declare a state of emergency at the end of March and to prohibit children under 18 who are not vaccinated against the disease from being in public spaces.
The director of the Department of Health in Westchester, Sherlita Amler, today made an urgent call to parents to make it a priority to obtain for their children the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella.
“With the increase in the number of cases of measles in our surroundings, I urgently call on parents who have not vaccinated their children to reconsider.” Measles is highly contagious, and nine out of ten people have not been immunized. they are exposed to measles will become infected, “he warned.
“People can spread measles before they know they are sick,” she added, explaining that if someone without vaccination is in a room where a person with measles was two hours before, they can catch the disease.
Amler argued that measles can be a serious infection that can result in pneumonia, brain inflammation (encephalitis), hearing loss and death.
Measles is a viral disease that begins with fever, cough, runny nose, red and watery eyes (EFEUSA).
