Epidemic (human)

A Howard County resident who recently travelled abroad tested positive for the highly contagious virus measles, the Maryland Department of Health said Sunday.“Out of an abundance of caution,” state and local public health officials are working to identify anyone who might also have been exposed, the Maryland Department of Health said in a news release.According to the department, individuals who visited Washington Dulles International Airport between 4:00 PM and 9:00 PM on March 5 or Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center Pediatric Emergency Department between 3:30 PM and 7:30 PM on March 7 may have been exposed.Officials encourage anyone who was at either of these locations in the potential exposure windows to monitor for fever and other measles symptoms. Individuals who develop symptoms should call their health provider and stay away from childcare centers, schools, work or public places.Officials also say that symptomatic individuals should refrain from showing up to emergency departments or waiting rooms until after speaking with their health provider to avoid spreading the virus to other patients.Measles cases have cropped up in Maryland from time to time – one individual was identified with the virus in the state last year, and another in 2023, according to the health department.But a growing outbreak in the Southwestern U.S., along with the country’s first death from the virus in a decade, has alarmed Maryland public health experts, who worry about the possibility of nationwide spread.Officials with the Maryland Department of Health said the Howard County case is not associated with the Southwest outbreak.According to health experts, measles is so contagious that people can become infected by walking through the same space hours after an infected person coughed. One in five people may become hospitalized. Many patients suffer long-term complicationThe Baltimore BanAs of March 7, more than 200 people had contracted measles in Texas and another 30 in New Mexico, according to the Associated Press, a historic outbreak of the virus.A child died from the virus in Texas, while an unvaccinated adult died Thursday in New Mexico after testing positive for the virus, a death officials there say was at least “measles-related.”Early symptoms of measles are a fever of more than 101 degrees Fahrenheit, runny nose, cough, and red, watery eyes. A red rash typically appears between one and four days after other early symptoms, starting on the face and spreading to the rest of the body.Symptoms typically develop between 10 and 14 days after exposure, according to the health department, though they sometimes show as early as seven days after or as late as three weeks after.An infected individual is considered contagious before the measles rash is ever visible. A person with measles becomes contagious four days before the rash appears and for another four days after it begins, according to the health department.Considered eliminated in the United States in 2000, measles cases persisted among people who had traveled to countries where it has been more prevalent.All 50 states require school-age children to be vaccinated, with religious and medical exemptions in many states, including Maryland. But rates dropped during the pandemic below the 95% threshold – the level considered necessary for the broad community protection known as herd immunity.Pregnant women, infants under a year-old and immune compromised individuals are thought to be most at risk of complications from measles.Health experts generally consider people immune to measles if they have had two vaccines agains the the virus, if they have previously contracted measles or if they were born in the United States before 1957.The health department is urging anyone in at-risk groups who might have been exposed to the virus to contact their health care provider or seek guidance from the Howard County Health Department’s Infectious Disease Surveillance and Response Program by calling 410-313-6284.