HEALTH ADVISORY: MEASLES IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY

SUMMARY
The Westchester County Department of Health (WCDOH) has notified the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) about a case of measles in a 32 year old traveler from Italy. The case had never received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

The case stayed at the Tarrytown Marriott in Tarrytown, NY from approximately 5:30 PM on 7/23/2010 to shortly before noon on 7/24/2010. He developed prodromal symptoms on the evening of 7/23/2010 and rash 7/24/2010. The case was seen at a local emergency department on 7/24/2010 and was promptly admitted to the hospital in airborne isolation.  Measles was confirmed by IgM by the NYSDOH Wadsworth Laboratory on 7/27/2010. The case had minimal contact with the public outside of the Tarrytown Marriott between his arrival in Tarrytown on 7/23/2010 and his hospital admission on 7/24/2010.

Providers should increase their index of suspicion for measles in clinically compatible cases.  Any suspected case of measles should be reported immediately to the local health department (LHD) where the patient resides. LHDs should notify the NYSDOH Bureau of Immunization to arrange for appropriate testing for confirmation.
All contacts of cases should be immune or fully vaccinated according to age as recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Measles continues to be endemic throughout the world. Recent outbreaks have been reported in France, Spain, Russia, the Philippines and several countries in Africa. Because of the risk of measles in both developed and developing countries, providers should ensure measles immunity in their patients who travel abroad or who will be in contact with international travelers, regardless of the travel destination.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 10:29 am and is filed under HEALTH DEPARTMENT UPDATES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.