Day care measles exposure forces Iowa family to take weeks off work for baby: ‘It only takes one’

Martha Martin must use every stay remaining for the year to stay at home with her baby, and it will still not be enough.

Hal, nine months, has recently been exposed to measles to the daycare and cannot return there for almost a full month. He did not have the vaccine against measles-humps-rublla, which was not recommended until the age of 1. When Martin has to go back to work, her husband will have to take several days unpaid to stay at home with the boy.

“It drives me so crazy that it happens,” said Martin, 26, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “It’s frightening because my son is not protected, and I have to worry about childcare services and my work and my husband’s work.” In these situations, the centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend around forty for 28 days.

Because it is too young for the measles vaccine, Hal needed immunoglobulin emergency plans, or IG, an antibody that helps the immune system to fight infections.

At this point, Martin said: “It’s just a waiting game.”

The concern and frustration of his family take place in households nationwide, because the number of measles cases has exceeded a level not seen since the very contagious virus was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.

Wednesday, the CDC reported 1,309 cases of measles in 39 states. The vast majority of patients are children.

Each of these cases had the opportunity to exhibit hundreds, even thousands of other people, especially children, too young to be vaccinated, such as HAL or children with weak immune systems, experts said.

Dr. Ana Montanez, pediatrician at Texas Tech Physicians in Lubbock, Texas, took care of many families during the recent measles epidemic in western Texas.

“Many of our families, families who work hard, generally do not save money to stay at home, but they have to,” said Montanez. “Often, it’s not just a job, but two, maybe three.”

Cedar Rapids does not know an epidemic of measles. According to the latest Iowa data in 2025, only seven cases were confirmed in 2025. They are the first cases of measles reported in Iowa since 2019.

However, the situation of the Martin family illustrates the training effects of a single exhibition.

“What is happening in our city is a perfect example of the reason why vaccination is important,” said Dr. Dustin Arnold, chief doctor at Unitypoint Health-Cedar Rapids. “You just need a case of measles,” he said, “to trigger waves of impact.

On Saturday, Arnold led a command center offering immunoglobulins, or IG photos for eight babies who were exhibited in measles at daycare the same day as Hal. Three others were sent to a nearby medical establishment for the same treatment.

IG injections can be given up to six days after exposure to measles. A 2021 study revealed that therapy is very effective in protecting newborns exposed from falling ill.

IG treatments is not a permanent solution, said Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Société des Diseases infectious in America. Children “develop much higher levels of immunity from vaccination than immunoglobulin,” she said.

The Clinics of Cedar Rapids IG, led by Arnold, were gathered at the very last minute. Babies who had the injections had been exposed six days earlier on Monday, July 7. Families were informed Friday, July 11 and the treatments began the next morning.

“There are infants who have no protection, and we don’t want them to fall sick,” said Arnold. “Measles can be soft, but it can also be fatal.”

The majority of patients with measles have behaved well despite their disease. However, 13% or 164 patients were to be hospitalized due to the infection.

Three people – including two young girls in Texas – have died of measles this year. Last week, a child in England died from the virus.