A sophomore student at St. Petersburg Catholic High School tested positive for measles, the second case of the highly contagious disease reported in Tampa Bay this year.
The private school advised parents of the infection in a letter sent to parents last week. Unvaccinated and immunocompromised students were advised that they could stay home and to consult with their physicians.
But the school has stayed open based on its high vaccination rate. More than 99% of its roughly 500 students are vaccinated against measles, said Allison Munden, a spokesperson for the Diocese of St. Petersburg.
No other related cases have been reported so far.
“We are closely following that because we’re not out of the incubation period yet,“ Munden said.
The case comes as outbreaks of measles have been reported in a handful of Florida communities. About 50 cases of measles have been reported at Ave Maria University, a Catholic higher education campus near Fort Myers, reports show. State data also shows four cases in Jacksonville.
Another two infections have been reported at the University of Florida in Gainesville, the first in Alachua County since 2011, according to state data. State health officials there are conducting contract tracing, according to a statement released by the university.
Cases of the disease were reported in Hillsborough and Manatee counties last month.
There have been no cases in Pinellas County public schools, according to an email sent Feb. 6 to school board members by Superintendent Kevin Hendrick.
District policy requires that any student with a rash of unknown origin stay home from school until seen by a healthcare provider. Students who may have been exposed to someone infected with measles are allowed to attend school as long as they remain symptom-free.
Measles is highly contagious because of its airborne spread. An infected child in a classroom of unvaccinated children would result in an infection rate of about 90%.
Infection typically results in acute illness and a rash of small, red, slightly raised spots. It can lead to high fever and complications including bronchitis and pneumonia.
Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000 but the rate of Florida children who are fully vaccinated has decreased in recent years likely due to increased vaccine skepticism and an increase in applications for religious exemptions.
The outbreaks of the potentially fatal childhood disease come as Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is pushing for the abolition of mandatory vaccinations, including measles, required to attend schools.
In a speech in September, Ladapo likened the mandates to “slavery” and pledged to end them.
The state Department of Health in December took a step toward eliminating four vaccines required to attend school: Varicella, or chickenpox; hepatitis B; Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib; and pneumococcal conjugate, or PCV15/20.
Other vaccine mandates, including measles, polio and tetanus, would take action by state lawmakers to change.
Ladapo did not recommend the measles vaccine in his September speech. Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor appointed by the Trump administration as an administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, had a markedly different message on Feb. 8 in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He called on Americans to get the measles vaccine as more than 700 cases have been confirmed across the United States in 20 states this year.
“Take the vaccine, please,” Oz said, “We have a solution for our problem. Not all illnesses are equally dangerous, and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses. But measles is one you should get your vaccine (for).”