Measles Epidemic Claims 2nd Baby

An Orange County baby has died from complications of measles, the second such death this year, a Health Care Agency official reported Thursday.

That news along with about 70 reported measles cases since the first of the year means that an epidemic of the childhood disease is continuing unchecked, county epidemiologist Thomas F. Prendergast said.

“We had hoped that it might go away” when the numbers appeared to drop last December, he said. Instead, “I’m virtually certain we’re seeing as much activity as last year at this time.” Since the current outbreak began in mid-1988, Orange County has recorded nearly 500 measles cases.

The latest death, on Feb. 16 at UCI Medical Center, involved a 10-month-old girl from Anaheim who contracted measles and then pneumonia, Prendergast said. UCI Medical Center would not release the girl’s name. One month earlier, 7-month-old Jose Herrera of Santa Ana, already seriously ill with measles, died at UCI of encephalitis and pneumonia.

This year’s measles cases involve a pattern of transmission that began in mid-1988, Prendergast said. Most of those contracting the disease have been Latino preschoolers who were never immunized and who sometimes were exposed to the disease in hospital or clinic waiting rooms, he said.

The deaths of the babies serve as “a reminder that only vaccination is protecting us” from a virulent disease, Prendergast warned. State health officials recommend that all children be vaccinated when they turn 1 year old.