Florida measles cases rise as experts oppose state surgeon general’s decisions
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo’ choice to let parents decide whether to quarantine their children or let them keep going to school has drawn fire from experts.
The Florida measles outbreak is expanding. As of Monday, health officials in Broward County confirmed an eighth case of the virus, including one in a child under age 5.
It’s unknown what connection the youngest measles patient has to Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, near Fort Lauderdale, where most of the cases have been identified. The spread beyond school-age kids was expected.
Cases are “not going to stay contained just to that one school, not when a virus is this infectious,” said Dr. David Kimberlin, co-director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that as of Friday there have been at least 35 measles cases in 15 states in 2024 — most related to international travel. In January, there were nine measles cases in Pennsylvania, eight of them in Philadelphia. (If there are no more cases reported there as of early next week, the Philadelphia outbreak will be declared over.) Late Friday, Michigan’s health department announced that it, too, had identified a measles case — its first since 2019.
Florida’s outbreak is the largest in the U.S. right now. And what Florida’s health officials are doing — or not doing — is drawing fire from experts who study the way diseases spread.
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