The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) recently announced that a case of measles has been detected in an Alabamian who is currently residing and working out of the state.
ADPH acknowledges that the case has no connection to the state or any cases therein. However, it said the instance comes as a reminder of the importance of vaccinations.
"The person, who was unvaccinated, is not associated with any known public exposures in Alabama. However, it serves as a reminder that unvaccinated individuals can be exposed to measles while traveling within the United States or internationally and may unknowingly bring the virus home, where it can be spread to others," ADPH said in a release.
"Measles is a serious, highly contagious viral respiratory illness that spreads through droplets sprayed into the air when someone with measles sneezes or coughs," ADPH added. "If exposed, unvaccinated people have a 90 percent chance of becoming infected. Measles symptoms usually appear 7-14 days after infection, and infected people can spread the disease to other people who are not protected for several days before becoming symptomatic."
Perhaps uncoincidentally, ADPH's announcement comes simultaneously with a bevy of national coverage highlighting increased measles cases nationwide, using it as a tool to slam the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Recently, the health care advocacy organization Protect Our Care, dedicated to defending and expanding the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and other programs, used the heightened measles cases to slam Trump and RFK Jr.'s policies, using it to promote the vaccine.
"Donald Trump and RFK Jr. remain on a suicide mission to scare American families away from vaccines without cause or evidence. What they've accomplished is a huge dip in vaccination rates and the worst measles crisis in 35 years," said Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care. "While the nation's measles elimination status is doomed, the Trump CDC apparently has not spent a dime on public service ads promoting the one thing that will get us out of the woods: the measles vaccine.
In its release, ADPH encouraged the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, suggesting Children take two doses between one and six years old, and one to two doses of the MMR vaccine for adults depending on "risk factors."
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