The Alabama Department of Public Health announced Sunday that it is investigating a suspected case of measles in Lee County. If the Lee County patient is confirmed to have measles, it would be the first case in Alabama this year.

While details are necessarily sparse due to privacy concerns and legal requirements, the ADPH said the person who may be affected is an “unvaccinated person who was not yet eligible for vaccine.”

The ADPH’s website states that the first dose of the measles vaccine is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months of age.

The number of measles cases and resulting deaths plummeted dramatically following the initial rollout of the measles vaccine in the 1960s, but there have been several major outbreaks in recent years following a dip in the number of children

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