Florida health officials are warning parents to monitor their children as outbreaks of measles and meningitis spread through schools. An 11-year-old boy has died of meningitis in the state.
Florida health officials are battling dual outbreaks of measles and meningitis in state schools. In Volusia County, an 11-year-old boy died from meningitis, prompting a warning to parents to monitor their children's health.
The child, who attended Burns Science and Technology Charter School, a kindergarten-through-12th-grade school in Oak Hill, died last week after he left campus with a stomach ache, health officals said.
His death “has rocked us to the core," said Albert Amalfitano, board chairman of the charter school, according to local media reports. “We are taking all necessary precautions to protect our other students," he said.
In south Florida, health experts sounded the alarm after measles cases spread in Broward County with six students falling ill at one elementary school in Weston, and three others confirmed in other areas, officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles had been eradicated in 2000. According to state figures, 8% of kindergartners in Broward County have not been vaccinated against measles.
For meningitis, symptoms include a sore neck, nausea, fever, sleepiness and lack of thirst and appetite. It is an inflammation of membranes surrounding the spinal cord and brain, and can be quite serious without quick treatment, according to the CDC.
It is spread by being in close contact with someone infected, including touching or kissing, health experts said.
Measles symptoms are high fever, red and watery eyes, followed by red skin rashes on the body. It can be severly dangerous to babies and children under the age of 5, leading to pneumonia and encephalitis, brain swelling that can cause deafness and developmental problems in young children.
Measles is one of the most infectious diseases known to medicine and can be spread by simply being in the same space as someone carrying the virus, according to health experts.
Florida law does require that children receive the measles vaccine before enrolling in school, but parents can opt out for religious or medical concerns.
Some public health experts have criticized the state's surgeon general for leaving it up to the parents of children at the impacted elementary school to decide whether to quarantine their kids or send them to school.
According to the CDC, nine out 10 people who are not vaccinated or don't have prior immunity will contract the measles after being exposed to it.
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