Measles cases have now been reported in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee and the disease is likely to spread to Alabama, according to health officials.

The Centers for Disease Control said 626 cases of measles have been reported in 22 states, with concentrated outbreaks among unvaccinated populations in New York City and Rockland County, New York; Washington state; New Jersey; Michigan; and Butte County, California.

No cases have been reported in Alabama but it is unlikely the state will escape the disease, officials said.

“We’re likely to have one or more cases here in Alabama,” William Curry, M.D., Senior VP for Population Health, UAB, said Monday. “It is a very infectious and effective virus. Once it gets started in a vulnerable population it will spread quickly. If we have neighborhoods of people who are not immunized and we are likely to see more than one case.”

Officials are urging people to receive vaccinations against measles and, if they are concerned their vaccine is no longer effective, to have a blood test performed by their doctor. The vaccine is 97 percent effective against the disease.

Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, almost 40 years after the first live measles vaccine was licensed. In the decade before the vaccinations, an average of 549,000 measles cases and 495 measles deaths were reported annually in the U.S.

Since 2000, the annual number of cases has ranged from a low of 37 in 2004 to a high of 667 in 2014, with 2019 on pace to top that number.

You can see information on the symptoms of measles here.