ECC offers measles vaccine today
A confirmed measles case in an Elgin Community College student will fuel 200 measles vaccine shots for students and staff who may have been exposed to the infected student.
The Kane County Health Department will administer the shots. Officials expected to receive the vaccine Thursday, but because it was a state holiday, the doses will not be distributed until Friday and Tuesday.
Health officials in Cook County, where the student lives, traced the student's activities back to the college earlier this week. The student attended classes and went to the library on Feb. 3 and returned to campus for class on Feb. 5. College officials determined the student shared space with as many as 200 people, judging from the number of people in those classes and the areas of campus the student occupied.
There are now 11 confirmed measles cases in Cook County following news of another infant connected to a KinderCare day care center in Palatine contracting the illness Wednesday afternoon.
Barb Jeffers, executive director of the Kane County Health Department, said in a county newsletter that the vaccines are a proactive measure to stop the spread of measles. Anyone who shared classroom space with the student or worked at the college in areas where the student may have exposed people to measles is eligible to receive the free shot.
The vaccine is only for people who have not been previously vaccinated. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 90 percent of people who are not immune and come into close contact with an infected person will also become infected.
The vaccine will not prevent measles from developing in any one who was unvaccinated at the time of exposure and infected, said health department spokesman Tom Schlueter.
“If you have the measles and you get a shot, it's not going to get rid of the measles,” he said. “But it can reduce the severity of the symptoms and possibly reduce the ability to spread it to other people.”
Schlueter said the vaccine is similar to the flu shot in that there is a delay after receiving the injection before it provides full immunity.
The Centers for Disease Control report one dose of the measles vaccine is 93 percent effective. Two doses is about 97 percent effective.
People with questions about measles or the vaccine should contact their doctors or local health care providers.