Health authorities in the District of Columbia and Virginia issued a warning about a possible measles exposure on Tuesday after a person with a “confirmed case” of the highly contagious virus traveled through two airports in the Washington metro area.
In a release issued on Tuesday, DC Health said that it “has been notified of a confirmed case of measles in a person who traveled through” area airports after returning from international travel. It said that the “threat of transmission is low” but the local health agency said it is notifying people who were at the airports about “their potential exposure.”
The exact exposure may have occurred at Dulles International Airport in the international arrivals area of the main terminal, between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Jan. 3 as well as at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s Terminal A between 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, Jan. 4, according to the health agency.
The Virginia Department of Health warned about the case in a separate news release over the weekend.
“Out of an abundance of caution,” the agency said it is “informing people who were at various locations, including Dulles International Airport on January 3, 2024, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 4, 2024, that they may have been exposed” to the virus.
Health authorities are now working to identify people who may have been exposed to measles, including working to contact possibly exposed passengers on several flights.
Neither statements from the Virginia and Washington health agencies listed the airlines or flights that the infected person used. It’s also not clear what country the person had been traveling to.
But both health departments said that people who may have been exposed and are at risk of developing measles should be on the lookout for measles symptoms until around Jan. 25. They said that people who have never received a vaccine for measles “may be at risk of developing measles.”
“If you notice symptoms of measles, immediately isolate yourself by staying home and away from others. Contact your healthcare provider right away,” DC Health said. “Call ahead before going to your healthcare provider’s office or the emergency room to notify them that you may have been exposed to measles and ask them to call the health department. This will help protect other patients and staff.”
Symptoms
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health authorities say that measles is a highly transmissible illness that spreads through the air when a person breathes, coughs, talks, or sneezes.
The virus generally shows up in two stages. In the first, most people develop a fever higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit, runny nose, watery red eyes, or a cough. These symptoms generally start seven to 14 days after being exposed.
Officials say the second stage of measles starts about two to three days after the initial symptoms. Some people develop what is known as Koplik spots—tiny white spots—inside the mouth, according to the CDC.
Three to five days after the first symptoms begin, the telltale measles rash starts to appear on the patient’s face near the hairline area before it spreads to the rest of the body, spreading downward, the CDC says.
“Small raised bumps may also appear on top of the flat red spots,” and the “spots may become joined together as they spread from the head to the rest of the body,” the agency says. “When the rash appears, a person’s fever may spike to more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, the rash can be “made up of large, flat blotches that often flow into one another.”
A person who has developed measles can potentially spread the virus to others from about four days before the rash appears until the rash has been present for approximately four days, the clinic says.
The cases near Washington are the latest possible outbreaks of the virus in the past month or so. Several days ago, officials in New Jersey said a resident of Camden County, located near Philadelphia, had a case of measles, and officials said they are investigating the source of the infection.
On Dec. 29, some 20 to 30 people were possibly exposed to measles at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Delaware after a person visited the facility who was “not symptomatic but was infectious at the time of their visit,” said the Delaware Department of Health.
Notably, in 2019, or months before the COVID-19 pandemic started, health officials in New York’s Rockland County declared an emergency after more than 100 people were diagnosed with the virus in the county. That order banned minors who were not vaccinated for measles from appearing in public places, including shopping centers, schools, and restaurants.
This week, officials in the United Kingdom warned of more measles outbreaks across England after cases in the West Midlands area rose by more than 30 percent in a week, the BBC reported.
From The Epoch Times
