Pennsylvania warns of congenital measles risk as cases rise

Pennsylvania warns of congenital measles risk as cases rise

Pennsylvania officials warned doctors this week about an increase in congenital measles as the state continues to battle the worst outbreak in the disease it has seen in decades.

In a guidance, the Pennsylvania Department of Health advised that “getting vaccinated BEFORE pregnancy is the best way to prevent measles and congenital measles.”

Congenital measles is an infection transmitted from a mother to a fetus late in pregnancy or around the time of birth. It was rare to see in the days before vaccination because most mothers were infected during childhood. But now, with vaccination rates dropping and outbreaks spreading, it’s becoming much more of a threat .

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, congenital measles occurs in newborns whose mothers have been infected during the two weeks before birth and who test positive or develop measles symptoms within 10 days of delivery.

The state noted newborns who contract the virus before birth are at risk of developing subacute sclerosing panencephalitis , a rare and potentially fatal inflammation of the brain that can emerge years after the initial infection.

The state has recorded more than 1,300 measles cases so far, and experts suspect the outbreak is much larger. State officials are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on an incidence model to estimate the true burden of the disease, as well as a nowcast model that can assist with case counts and outbreak trajectory.

“It sounds like there are now well over 60 cases of congenital measles. So pregnant women who are getting measles, obviously they can’t get the vaccine,” said Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Marrazzo noted it was “vanishingly rare” for most family doctors today to have encountered measles, let alone congenital measles, among their patients.

“That’s a situation where you can’t give the vaccine, but there are other things you can give, like immunoglobulin. But you need to know about those things and know who to talk to,” Marrazzo said.

There’s only a six-day window from the time of exposure for dose of immunoglobulin to be administered.

There’s no specific treatment for infants who contract congenital measles.

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