Franklin County Public Health is offering the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, without appointments, at locations across the county Wednesday-Friday.
The effort is in response to the Ohio’s first reported measles case in 2019, identified last week in Stark County.
Miller Sullivan, the public health department’s medical director, says one case is not necessarily cause for alarm, but there’s a bigger picture.
“There is just one case in Stark County so it’s not widespread in Ohio, but if you look at the entire United States, we’ve had the most measles cases in decades, so far this year, and the year is just halfway through," Sullivan says.
He says the vaccines are offered for children 18 and younger, or for uninsured adults born after 1957. The department is offering discounted services for people without insurance.
“What we’re hoping to get is somebody that perhaps hasn’t taken their child for routine immunizations,” he says. “Maybe someone who is an adult and is not sure if they’ve had the vaccine.”
Sullivan says while access is important, ultimately more education is needed to tackle measles.
“Unfortunately the people a lot of people are getting the measles is because they haven’t been vaccinated," he says. "Some for religious reasons, but many of them just for other reasons that it’d be nice if we could discuss that and change their mind.”
The Public Health department is offering vaccines at the following times and locations:
- Wednesday: Dublin Recreation Center, 5600 Post Road 43017, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
- Thursday: Prairie Township Fire Department, 123 Inah Avenue 43228, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
- Friday: Canal Winchester Community Center, 22 S. Trine Street 43110, from 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
