Some infectious disease experts — including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) former director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky — are pushing health officials to recommend an extra dose of the MMR vaccine for babies ages 6-11 months who live in or travel to areas of the U.S. with measles outbreaks, according to Medpage Today.
The news comes as a suspected measles case in a 1-year-old child in Pima County, Arizona, this week turned out to be a reaction to the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine — not measles.
According to a Pima County news release, reactions to the MMR vaccine are “rare and do not carry the same risk as community-acquired measles.”
The Pima County Health Department did not specify the toddler’s symptoms but said state and county health authorities — and the local hospital where the child was treated — “took precautions in the child’s treatment as if it were an infectious case.”
Arizona has not reported any measles cases so far in 2025, the release said.
The CDC’s current Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule recommends children receive their first dose of the MMR vaccine between the ages of 2-15 months, and their second dose between ages 4-6 years.
Infants 6-11 months old who are about to travel internationally are advised to get an extra dose before traveling.
Walensky and colleagues argued in op-eds published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and STAT News that the recommendation should be changed due to the uptick in U.S. measles cases.
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