North Carolina health officials are keeping an eye on the measles as it hovers nearby. The latest count by the Centers for Disease Control shows 880 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 24 states, including nearby Tennessee and Georgia. The CDC says this is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1994 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. State and local health officials have been spreading the “get vaccinated” message with a focus on children. But what about adults? BPR’s Helen Chickering checked in with a local health expert.
“We’re getting the message out about measles, trying to education the public, do you need to get immunized.”
That’sBuncombe County Medical Director Dr. Jennifer Mullendore, who says adults who are not in a high risk area and have had at least dose of the measles vaccine fit the“evidence of immunity” standard set by the Centers for Disease Control, two doses for adults considered high risk, which along with people living in a community with an outbreak, includes college students, healthcare workers and international travelers. If you had the measles you are considered immune. So are people born before 1957.
“If you were born before 1957, you are considered immune solely based on your age because you grew up in a time when there weren’t vaccines against measles and so the likelihood is you were exposed to what we call epidemic measles and you are immune based on that," says Mullendore.
For people who are unsure or still worried about their risk, Dr. Mullendore says check in with your healthcare provider, there is a blood test that can check for measles antibodies. I’m Helen Chickering
Dr. Mullendore stresses that children are the most important group to reach as outbreaks can spread rapidly in schools and daycares. During the 2017-18 school year, Buncombe County had the highest number of kindergarteners opting out of vaccines with a religious exemption, according to DHHS data.
Along with spreading the “get vaccinated” message, health officials have also been checking in with local medical providers to make sure they know how to spot and handle cases in the event measles makes it into Western North Carolina.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing. Also, measles virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed. If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses, or mouths, they can become infected. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, up to 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.
Infected people can spread measles to others from four days before through four days after the rash appears.
Measles is a disease of humans; measles virus is not spread by any other animal species.
The symptoms of measles generally appear about seven to 14 days after a person is infected. Measles typically begins with high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes.
Two or three days after symptoms begin, tiny white spots (Koplik spots) may appear inside the mouth. Three to five days after symptoms begin, a rash breaks out. It usually begins as flat red spots that appear on the face at the hairline and spread downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs, and feet. Small raised bumps may also appear on top of the flat red spots. The spots may become joined together as they spread from the head to the rest of the body. When the rash appears, a person’s fever may spike to more than 104° Fahrenheit.
