Do You Need Another Measles Shot?

Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at measles outbreaks and whether you need another shot. We’ll also get details on the State of the City address by the City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams.

Measles cases are surging in rural West Texas, raising concerns about this highly contagious virus. Two unrelated cases have been reported in New York City this year, and last week state and city health officials in New York issued a health advisory about measles.

Why? “The more cases you have, the more cases you’re going to get,” said Dr. James McDonald, the state health commissioner, adding that the time lag between when someone is exposed and when symptoms develop means “this is going to keep going.” Measles is so contagious that someone can contract it just by going into a room that an infected person had been in two hours earlier, the state Health Department said.

Vaccination has long been the most effective way to combat measles, and most of the people who have come down with it were unvaccinated. The Texas Department of State Health Services said on Tuesday that only five of the 159 cases had been vaccinated; 80 had not been vaccinated; and the status of the others was not known. In New Jersey, where three cases were reported last week in Bergen County, none had been vaccinated.

Last week Texas reported the first measles death in the United States since 2015, and nine people in a nearby county in New Mexico have also been diagnosed with measles. Nearly 80 cases have been reported in Canada, including 55 in Ontario, the province that shares a 445-mile border with New York.