Child in Suffolk contracts measles; officials warn of 'potential exposure' at Northwell hospital

A Suffolk County child has tested positive for measles, the third infection statewide this year, New York health officials said Tuesday, as they warned people at a New Hyde Park hospital while the child underwent treatment there of "potential exposure" to the highly contagious disease.

Officials would not say whether the child is still hospitalized at Cohen Children's Medical Center, where they reside in Suffolk County or how they may have contracted measles. 

Anyone who was at the hospital'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, according to the New York State Health Department.

"These times reflect the potential exposure period when the infected individual was in the identified areas," the agency said in news release. "As this investigation is ongoing, potential other exposures are also being assessed."

The state's first two measles cases this year have been in New York City.

The child was unvaccinated but did not attend day care or school while infectious, according to the Suffolk County Department of Health.

State health officials said the child had recently traveled "outside of the U.S."

Officials declined to give the age of the infected child, other than to say they were under 5. Since children generally receive their first measles vaccination between the age of 12 and 15 months, babies are usually unvaccinated for their first year of life.

In March 2024, a child under 5 from Nassau County also was treated at Cohen's for measles. It wasn't clear how that child contracted the disease and they had not been traveling overseas, where measles is more common. The child recovered and was released.

Before that, the most recent Long Island measles cases were in 2019, when there were three in Nassau and one in Suffolk, according to state health department data.

The new Suffolk case has not been linked 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.

Cohen Children’s Medical Center 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.

"Measles can be very serious. It’s much more than just a rash as complications can include pneumonia and inflammation of the brain, and often results in hospitalization," New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement. "The most important thing people can do to protect themselves is to ensure they've been properly immunized against measles and immediately get a shot if they are not."

Measles can be spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The virus can live up to 2 hours in the air even after an infected person leaves, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms, such as high fever, cough and red eyes start 7 to 14 days after a person is infected, followed by a distinctive red rash.

"One dose of the measles vaccine, which is given between 12 and 15 months, gives you about 93% protection," said Dr. Matthew Harris, who works in emergency medicine at Cohen Children's Medical Center. "The second dose, which is given between 4 and 6 years, gets it up to about 97%."

Harris said a very small percentage of children who are fully vaccinated get measles and if they do it is a much more mild form.

"There's no treatment for measles, the best we can offer is supportive care," Harris said. "It can cause a devastating pneumonia, it can cause a form of encephalitis that is irreversible and we also know that measles has longstanding impact on your immune system."

He told NewsdayTV Tuesday: "Measles was nearly eradicated in the early 2000s. The emergence of measles here in New York and in many states around the country is highly concerning because there are many children who are at extraordinarily high risk for complications of measles, namely those under the age of 1."

Before a measles vaccine became available in 1963, about 3 million to 4 million Americans were infected with measles, 400 to 500 people died and 48,000 were hospitalized every year.

With David Olson and AP