{"id":162946,"date":"2026-02-20T19:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/162946\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:59:07","slug":"lee-health-reports-first-measles-case-amid-ave-maria-outbreak-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/162946\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Health reports first measles case amid Ave Maria outbreak | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">LEE COUNTY, Fla.\u2014The measles outbreak in Southwest Florida has seen its first confirmed case in Lee Health&#8217;s medical system.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Lee Health announced the positive test result, which aligns with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhealthcharts.gov\/ChartsReports\/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=FrequencyMerlin.Frequency&amp;FirstTime=True\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida Department of Health<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Most of the outbreak has been concentrated in Ave Maria, located in Collier County.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The DOH reported 61 confirmed and five probable cases of measles in Collier County from the start of the year through Valentine&#8217;s Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The former CDC director, Robert Redfield, has warned of a likely second outbreak in the area.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/collier\/measles-cases-rise-in-collier-county-experts-urge-vaccinations\/article_1b8da5d4-a0b4-4e71-8284-860b09abae71.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Measles cases rise in Collier County; experts urge vaccinations<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Lee Health is closely monitoring the situation and is prepared for any potential increase in cases. They follow established infection prevention and control protocols and collaborate with public health partners.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lee.floridahealth.gov\/programs-and-services\/infectious-disease-services\/epidemiology\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DOH<\/a> is offering free MMR immunizations to those interested.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">WINK News will continue to provide updates on this developing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla.\u2014The measles outbreak in Southwest Florida has seen its first confirmed case in Lee Health&#8217;s medical&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,3837,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-162946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-collaborator_gen_stories","12":"tag-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}