Babies who are too young to get vaccinated are some of the most vulnerable during measles outbreaks, like the one in South Carolina, which has become the biggest the country has seen in decades.
Compared to adults, measles tends to hit babies a lot harder. In some cases they get so sick they stop eating or drinking. The virus can also lead to serious complications like pneumonia, brain swelling, or even death.
For young babies, it really comes down to herd immunity. Put simply, about 95% of the people around them need to be vaccinated to help stop the spread.
The problem is that vaccination rates have been dropping in South Carolina and across the U.S. – this means protection from herd immunity is much lower.
In places like Spartanburg County, where the outbreak has been the worst, fewer than 90% of students are fully vaccinated.
Pediatrician Deborah Greenhouse explained that this puts babies in a really vulnerable spot as they depend on everyone else being protected.
At the same time, some lawmakers and officials have been leaning more toward treating vaccines as a personal choice or a matter of parental rights, rather than focusing on the bigger public health picture.
While things have started to calm down a bit in South Carolina, where there have been around 1,000 cases, measles is still popping up in other parts of the country. So far this tear, there have already been 17 outbreaks, compared to 48 last year, and there’s growing concern the U.S. could lose its measles elimination status.
Pediatrician Jessica Early never expected to be dealing with measles, but that changed when cases showed up in her Greer community; it made her worry not just about her patients, but also her own baby.
In response, she and other doctors started offering the MMR vaccine to infants as early as 6 months old.
Her clinic also began giving the second dose earlier than usual, instead of waiting until kids are 4 to 6 years old.
One frustration for doctors is the lack of detailed data.
No one really knows how many infants in South Carolina have caught measles or ended up in the hospital because of it.
According to state officials, 253 out of 997 recent measles cases were in children aged 4 and under.
Doctors say it may just be a matter of time before vaccine-preventable diseases start putting lives at risk again like they did a hundred years ago.
