State health officials on Thursday, Feb. 27, issued an alert urging New Yorkers to get their kids vaccinated for measles following the recent death of an unvaccinated child in Texas, the first in the United States since 2015.
It was a welcomed message given the threat the virus has for children.
Only two cases of measles have been confirmed in New York City and one in Nassau County so far in 2025.
But Texas health officials said there were 124 cases in that state alone as of Feb. 25 - mainly concentrated in areas with low vaccination rates. And measles is a dangerous disease that responds well to vaccinations.
"Measles is a very contagious, serious respiratory disease that causes rash and fever," Dr. James McDonald, the state health commissioner, said in a statement. "In some cases, measles can reduce the immune system's ability to fight other infections like pneumonia."
Current vaccination rates have increased on Long Island and across the state in recent years but continue to fall short of what is needed to reach community immunity. A 95% vaccination level is called for to protect a population and prevent a disease from continuing to spread.
In New York State, students are required to have immunizations before entering school. This includes two doses of measles, mumps, and rubella as well as vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, chickenpox and hepatitis.
But this leaves out children who are not of school age.
Children don't get their first measles vaccine dose until age 1 and don't get full protection until they get a booster between ages 4 and 6.
In 2023, state figures show 64% of children on Long Island received one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine by the age of 2, up from nearly 58% in 2022 and 60% in 2021.
That leaves a large number of infants, toddlers and young children unprotected. Parents must act accordingly.
New York doctors are particularly mindful of pockets of groups where vaccination rates are particularly low, such as the current outbreak in the Texas Mennonite community and the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn in 2019,
"It's easy for a forest fire to start with a spark because there you have a much larger percent of the population not immune," Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health. recently told Newsday.
Measles is not the only virus of concern to local doctors.
According to federal statistics, 86 children and 19,000 adults have died nationwide from the flu this year, and 430,000 adults have been hospitalized.
The country is also confronting a deadly bird flu that is sweeping the poultry industry and now infecting dairy herds. Long Island birds have been particularly hard hit.
The message is clear: The state of New York must take a more active role in promoting public health and safety measures, and Nassau parents should follow its advice.