Suffolk County measles case: Infant goes home, more than 12 residents possibly exposed in hospital, officials say

A Suffolk County infant who likely contracted measles during an overseas trip and was too young to be vaccinated is back home from the hospital and recovering, health officials said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, people who were in certain areas of Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park between March 3 and March 6 could have been exposed to measles and are being monitored.

Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott said his agency is monitoring 12 county residents who were at the hospital during that time. Eleven were vaccinated. The 12th, an infant too young to typically receive a measles vaccine, received treatment with immune globulin, a medicine that can help prevent measles even if a person was exposed to the virus. The infant is currently under quarantine.

Nassau County Health Department officials said they are also monitoring local residents who could have been exposed at Cohen Children's Medical Center during that time period, but did not provide a number of residents.

"As this is an ongoing investigation, we are unable to provide further information," health department spokesperson Alyssa Zohrabian wrote in an email.

The last measles case on Long Island was in March 2024, when a child under 5 from Nassau County also was treated at Cohen's. The child recovered and was released.

Before that, in 2019 there were three cases in Nassau and one in Suffolk, according to state health department data.

Measles is a highly contagious disease that can be especially dangerous for young children, said Dr. Aleena Zahra, an infectious disease physician at Catholic Health's St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown.

"There's a higher risk of complications in children under the age of 5," she said. "Those include pneumonia, severe ear infections and the one we really worry about is encephalitis, or inflammation on the brain."

Before a measles vaccine became available in 1963, about 400 to 500 people died from the disease each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, about 48,000 were hospitalized and 1,000 developed encephalitis.

Since children generally receive their first measles vaccination between the age of 12 and 15 months, babies are typically unvaccinated for their first year of life. The second dose is given between the ages of 4 and 6.

Zahra said in some situations, babies around 6 months of age can receive an early dose of the vaccine if they are going to travel overseas. Similarly, children can sometimes receive an earlier second dose if they are in the area of an active outbreak.

The child with measles from Suffolk County was the third infection statewide this year and first outside New York City, state health officials said.

Pigott said the only exposure in Suffolk was among the child's family. The infant was not enrolled in any kind of school or recreational program that would have put them in proximity to other children, Pigott said.

It is not connected to measles outbreaks elsewhere in the United States, the health department said. The majority of cases have been reported in Texas, where 223 people have tested positive for measles, including one school-aged child who died from the disease. That child had not received a measles vaccine.

Zahra said all parents should be aware of measles symptoms which appear about 10 to 12 days after exposure.

She said the illness can start with a high fever, runny nose and cough followed by the emergence of tiny white spots known as Koplik spots in the mouth. Then the patient develops a rash of red spots starting on the face and head before spreading to the rest of the body.

"If people think they have had any kind of exposure, it's important to seek medical attention," Zahra said.

Anyone who was at the Cohen's pediatric emergency department on March 3 or 4, or "visited an inpatient child on the Medicine 3 unit" between March 3 and 6 could have been exposed to measles, according to the New York State Department of Health.

The hospital is working with health officials "under established exposure protocols to ensure no further cases arise from this incident," according to a hospital statement emailed to Newsday on Tuesday. Northwell officials said they had no new information on the young measles patient or those who could have been exposed.