Unvaccinated attendee of big revival has state’s third case of measles in 3 months; Ky. ranks very low in measles vaccinations
An unvaccinated Jessamine County resident who attended the large, spontaneous revival at Asbury University has Kentucky’s third reported case of measles in three months, the state Department for Public Health said Friday.
The state says it investigates all reported cases. It said the first case in the last three months was in Christian County, and it was linked to an outbreak in Ohio. The second was reported in January in Powell County, and there were no known exposures or connections to the outbreak in Ohio,” the release said. “These two previous cases were thoroughly investigated and neither presented a public-health threat.”
The vaccine for measles vaccine is given in combination with those for mumps and rubella (“German measles to children at 12 to 15 months of age. A second dose is usually given at 4 to 6 years old, and is required for admission to school. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles if exposed to the virus, the state says.
The state health department is working with local departments to promote MMR vaccination in communities with low vaccine rates, the release said. Recent data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows MMR vaccine coverage among Kentucky kindergarteners is one of the nation’s lowest.