蜜桃影视

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

was originally reported by Barbara Rodriguez of .

, and so is the risk of exposure and infection at child care facilities, which often serve kids too young to be vaccinated against the highly contagious disease.

Children鈥檚 health is the most immediate challenge amid an exposure, but not the only one. Parents may face three weeks of quarantine that requires them to keep their child at home, leaving them scrambling to figure out how to work without reliable child care.

A mother in Iowa is highlighting just how complicated things can get. Martha Martin has been posting on social media about the ripple effects after a person who visited her 9-month-old son鈥檚 day care in Cedar Rapids later tested positive for the illness. The individual was vaccinated and is . Not all of the infections appear to be connected.

It took public health officials several days to notify the day care of the exposure, but Martin鈥檚 son 鈥� who had not yet received his first dose of the because of his age 鈥� was able to receive a post-exposure antibody known as . The alert came too late for her son to get an emergency MMR shot, which can be available within 72 hours of exposure.

Martin said she and her husband took their son to an emergency room for the antibody treatment, and she has received some mixed messaging about whether the couple will be on the hook to pay out of pocket. Other children from the day care were given immunoglobulin shots through a clinic organized by UnityPoint Health 鈥� St. Luke鈥檚 Hospital and the local county public health department. A spokesperson for the hospital system confirmed those details but did not respond to questions about the cost of the shots.

鈥淒ay cares can be a terrible place to have a measles outbreak,鈥� said Dr. Tina Tan, a pediatric infectious diseases physician and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be babies there that are too young to receive a measles vaccine. And they are at very high risk, if they get measles, to get a severe case.鈥�

The state of Iowa for non-immune people, a typical period in part because of how long a person may be able to spread the disease. But Martin said the day care instructed the couple to keep their son at home for 28 days .

鈥淚鈥檓 not sure what we鈥檙e going to do about that, not sure what we鈥檙e going to do about me going to work, my husband, everything like that,鈥� Martin said that has now been viewed 2.5 million times.

Martin initially responded to an interview request from The 19th but later stopped communication.

A senior staff member who answered a call at the Iowa day care directed inquiries to local and state public health officials. A spokesperson for the public health department in Linn County, Iowa, said it continues to monitor the day care and other places of exposure as needed after 鈥渉ours and hours鈥� of contact tracing. A spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the day care is open and highlighted its protocol .

Martin said her son appears to be fine for now, but she knows symptoms can take some time to emerge. She said while her employer has been understanding, she will use vacation days and her husband will take unpaid time off to care for their son. Throughout her posts, Martin hammered one point a few times.

鈥淕et your kids vaccinated,鈥� she said, adding: 鈥淵our kids, you yourself not getting vaccinated 鈥� you are harming everybody else.鈥�

In late March, a measles outbreak in West Texas reached a day care in Lubbock, where a child with measles infected several children, according to news reports. Some parents were told to keep their kids at home for 21 days of quarantine.

A representative for the Texas day care did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but its co-owner that the facility took a mix of precautions in order to keep its doors open. That meant sending some children home and isolating vulnerable children into a classroom while they still attended day care.

鈥淪ending an infant home for 21 days is a huge burden on working families so there was the need to balance risk of exposure vs the need for income,鈥� said Katherine Wells, director of the Lubbock Health Department, in an email.

America鈥檚 child care system runs under different levels of regulations, with varying rules by state when it comes to handling infectious disease outbreaks.

Ruth Friedman is a senior fellow at , a progressive think tank, and former director of the (OCC). She said day cares work under tight financial margins, and infectious diseases like measles could be a major financial blow, a dynamic that has parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic when some centers had to reduce services or close.

鈥淚f you destabilize the attendance and enrollment of children in child care, it can very quickly lead to programs closing their doors and child care broadly becoming unavailable to a community,鈥� she said.

Wells said some parents expressed anger about their child being quarantined, while others said they were simply fearful about their children being exposed to the disease, which can make people very sick: complications include pneumonia, brain swelling and death. Children under 5 and pregnant people are . And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 5 unvaccinated people with measles are hospitalized.

The first MMR shot is typically administered to a child between 12 and 15 months of age, with a second dose between the ages of 4 and 6. Children between 6 months old and a year are eligible for an earlier shot if they live in or travel to an outbreak area or are traveling internationally.

Iowa health officials , which can include receiving the second MMR shot as early as 28 days after the first dose. Two doses are 97 percent effective against measles, which is at .

The risk of measles at day cares is not new. Between December 2023 and January 2024, that spread in part because . The child, as well as the parent, later tested positive for measles.

Dr. Ericka Hayes, an attending physician and senior medical director of infection prevention at Children鈥檚 Hospital of Philadelphia, said the chances of more outbreaks in child care settings will depend on factors like vaccination rates within the facility and how it adheres to its policies around illness. She noted that children are contagious with measles 鈥� often a primary symptom 鈥� but other early signs of infection can look a lot like a common viral infection: fever, cough, runny nose, and red and watery eyes.

鈥淪o equally important is if a child is sick they should be excluded from day care,鈥� she said via email.

Friedman said the case out of Philadelphia previews a potential conflict that could emerge as parents reckon with health considerations amid work responsibilities that ensure they can pay their daily and monthly expenses. Federal law does not require employers to offer paid sick leave to its workers, leaving such options up to states. In some cases, .

鈥淭here鈥檚 this tension 鈥� what are you supposed to do with your child if you need to work?鈥� she said. 鈥淔rom a family perspective and from a child care sector perspective, I think the implications could potentially be really, really troubling.鈥�

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.