Virginia public health officials are warning of possible exposure to measles after a passenger with the highly contagious disease recently traveled through Dulles Airport.
As is their practice with these cases, Virginia health officials declined to release more information about the person, including their age, vaccination status or condition.
The case does not count toward the state’s total number of measles cases this year because the infected person lives in another state. The state has reported a total of four cases this year, all in children age 4 and younger, including a recent case that stemmed from a previously reported exposure but did not pose a new risk to the public.
Most people in Virginia have immunity to measles through vaccination, making the risk to the general public low. However, public health officials want to identify people who might have come into contact with the virus at the following places:
- Dulles International Airport Concourse B, on transportation to the International Arrivals Building and in the baggage claim area between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Jan. 24.
- Dulles shuttle bus to the rental car facilities between 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 24.
Officials say anyone who was at the potential exposure sites at the times above should contact the Loudoun County Health Department by completing this survey. Health officials are contacting potentially exposed passengers on specific flights.
Symptoms could develop up to 21 days after the potential exposure, and monitoring for symptoms is especially important for people who are not fully vaccinated or otherwise immune to measles. The most likely time someone could become sick from this exposure would be up until Feb. 14, health officials said.
In the first stage of measles symptoms, most people have a fever greater than 101 degrees, runny nose, watery red eyes and cough. The second stage starts three to five days after the onset of symptoms, with a rash on the face that spreads to the rest of the body. People with measles are contagious from four days before the rash appears through four days after the rash appears, state health officials say.
Measles, a highly contagious and potentially deadly virus, can remain in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
This year, the CDC has recorded at 588 confirmed cases of measles across 17 states as of Jan. 29.
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