LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. \u2013 If you watched new episodes of \u201cScooby Doo\u201d on Saturday morning, rebuilt Colonel Steve Austin or rocked a Big Wheel down the block, you may want to talk to your doctor about getting re-vaccinated for measles.<\/p>\n
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say some people born between 1963 and 1967 received a single-dose inactive or killed vaccine, which doesn’t provide the 97% lifelong protection that you get from the modern versions of the double-dose measles vaccine.<\/p>\n
The warning comes at a time when a national outbreak is sweeping the nation.<\/p>\n
More than 2,300 cases of measles have been reported nationwide \u2014 142 in Pennsylvania, four cases in Berks County, three cases in Montgomery County and 14 cases in Chester County.<\/p>\n
Of those, 62% of cases involve people over age 18.<\/p>\n
“We have an epidemic on our hands. There’s absolutely no question about it,” said Dr. Jeffrey Jahre with St. Luke’s University Health Network.<\/p>\n
Jahre says the outbreak has taken our population below herd immunity, or 95% of people immune from measles \u2014 one of the most highly contagious viral diseases.<\/p>\n
He says if you were born between 1963 and 1967, check your shot records to see if you got the single dose.<\/p>\n
Anyone who doesn\u2019t have those records and wants to be protected can still do so.<\/p>\n
“There isn’t any harm in getting that that additional shot. So, if I were you at this point in time, when there’s some doubt, I would just go ahead and get that second MMR,\u201d Jahre said.<\/p>\n
As with any health concern, patients are encouraged to talk to their doctors first to weigh the options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. \u2013 If you watched new episodes of \u201cScooby Doo\u201d on Saturday morning, rebuilt Colonel Steve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[103899,67072,108370,42687,4913,52934,50383,28,30,29,2303,108369,1394],"class_list":["post-254356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-centers-for-disease-control","tag-epidemic","tag-herd-immunity","tag-infectious-disease","tag-measles","tag-mmr-vaccine","tag-outbreak","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-public-health","tag-revaccination","tag-vaccination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}