City Officials Speed Up Vaccination Process for Immigrants in Measles Outbreak

In response to the ongoing measles outbreak, city officials are speeding up the process so that immigrants living in a densely populated shelter on the Lower West Side are fully vaccinated and protected against the disease.

Previously unvaccinated migrants will receive a second dose of the measles vaccine 28 days after the first dose, extending a quarantine period for children under 5 that was instituted to monitor and protect the most vulnerable population, it said Monday. the Chicago Department of Public Health.

This year there have been 31 confirmed cases of measles in Chicago, 21 of which are in children under 5 years old. Seven cases were reported in the city last week despite an initial wave of vaccines administered two weeks ago.

Most cases are concentrated in the city’s largest shelter, which houses families and many young children at 2241 S. Halsted St. on the Lower West Side, officials said. There are currently more than 23 active city- and state-run shelters, housing more than 10,400 immigrants as of Tuesday.

The increase in confirmed measles cases comes even as the city says it has administered 4,500 vaccines since the first case was detected on March 7. Young children are especially vulnerable to the disease after receiving the first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, said the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Olusimbo Ige.

“While the MMR vaccine is the best protection against the virus, children are at greater risk of contracting breakthrough measles after receiving a dose of the vaccine, especially those under 5 years of age. “We are seeing some of these cases at the Halsted shelter (on the Lower West Side), which is not surprising,” Ige said in a statement.

Over the weekend, Lake and Will counties reported one case of measles in each county. Both were said to be associated with the outbreak in Chicago.

Measles symptoms usually occur about 10 to 14 days after exposure and can cause a rash and high fever and, in some cases, can cause serious illness in young children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, according to health officials. .

While measles is one of the most contagious pathogens, vaccination protects against the disease “in almost all circumstances,” said Dr. David Zhang, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago.

“There is a very easy solution and that is to get vaccinated,” Zhang said. “It begins and ends with vaccination.”

Vaccination can also help protect people who were recently exposed to the disease. If an exposed person receives the first dose of the vaccine within 72 hours, evidence shows that complications could be less severe and less contagious, Zhang said.

Most Americans are protected with the MMR vaccine, which is required to attend K-12 schools in Illinois, unless students have religious or medical exemptions or have previously contracted the disease. Students living in temporary housing may also receive exemptions if they have difficulty accessing vaccines.

However, the immigrant population largely comes from Venezuela, where experts say there is no public health data due to a crippled economy and health infrastructure under the leadership of far-left President Nicolás Maduro. As a result, it is difficult to know exactly how many immigrants are vaccinated when they arrive. And many have lost their documentation during their trip here.

Earlier this month, a report provided to the Tribune by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless showed that less than half of Chicago Public Schools students without stable housing had met all of the district’s vaccination requirements. It’s possible that not all of those students were missing the measles vaccine, coalition leaders said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children receive the first dose of the vaccine after turning 12 months. Children usually receive the second dose between the ages of 4 and 6, but it can be given as early as 28 days after the first dose, according to CDC recommendations.

The shelter where the outbreak occurred houses families and many young children are staying there.

In the days after the shelter’s initial outbreak, the city’s Department of Public Health said it vaccinated more than 900 residents in a vaccination campaign that included assistance from the CDC and city council members. Another 700 immigrants were found to be “already immune to prior vaccination or infection,” health officials said.

The city is instructing immigrant families to quarantine vaccine-eligible children ages 1 to 5 until at least 21 days after they receive a second dose of the vaccine, which means keeping them home and not going to daycare or school. That brings the total quarantine time to 49 days after the first dose for about 50 young children enrolled in early learning programs residing at the shelter, according to the Department of Public Health.

Dr. Colleen Nash, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Rush University Medical Center, said that if children or pregnant women had not received the vaccine at the time of infection, they could be at greater risk.

“Those patients, if they are susceptible to infection, could be at risk for a more serious infection,” he said.

Medical professionals also warn that quarantining amid an outbreak could put stress on immigrant families new to the city.

“They just had a treacherous journey, they were put in conditions that may not be familiar to them, maybe they don’t speak the language, so communicating what is happening to them, how it is happening and what is happening is really important,” said the Dr. Aarati Didwania, an adult physician and associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Quarantined children and exposed patients also need to be monitored and tested, Didwania said, and there are plenty of medications and supplies available.

“We also have to make sure we have the medications to treat some of the symptoms they have,” he said. “Are we taking care of them individually by giving them things like Tylenol and things to make them more comfortable?”

Maria Perez, a Southwest Collective volunteer, handed out milk formula to mothers staying inside the shelter on the Lower West Side on a recent afternoon. She said there is a lot of uncertainty among asylum seekers.

“It’s not their fault they never received medical care,” he said. “Now they are afraid of having to pay for it… but they are also afraid of getting infected and not knowing what long-term effects it could have.”

While Nash said he had not seen this situation before, he had seen similar outbreaks in different areas of the country.

“With every infection, there will be cases,” he said. “It would be expected and not unusual.”

Nubia Willman, director of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Office of New Americans, said that during COVID-19, the mayor’s engagement team administered vaccines at churches and prioritized specific areas of the city with high infection rates.

He said those efforts were localized and carried out through trusted stakeholders.

“We saw success with COVID, making sure we engaged with communities in a way that (responded to) their cultural identity,” he said. “It’s important that that’s happening here.”

Willman highlighted the importance of having medical providers who interact with asylum seekers in a culturally competent manner. Most of the 37,000 immigrants who arrived in Chicago since August 2022 walked or rode buses through several countries to reach the United States. Many say they have witnessed deaths or suffered abuse throughout their travels.

“It is very easy to group Latinos together and think that we are a monolith. The reality is that we are all very diverse,” Willman said.

But Willman said it’s harder for immigrants in the country without legal permission, not just immigrants, to get access to health care resources.

“It is always difficult to ensure that federal resources, regardless of how they reach us, are accessible to uninsured and noncitizens,” he said.

Translation by Jose Luis Sanchez Pando/TCA

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Photo caption: Immigrants dine after attending a religious service outside the city shelter on the Lower West Side on March 4, 2024. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

2024-03-29 19:58:22
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