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June 24, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Visitor With Measles Puts Area on Alert"
Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN) (www.timesfreepress.com)
(06/22/02) P. B1; Park, Carolyne
Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi have put their health departments on alert since identifying a visitor who contracted measles during a recent overseas visit to Nigeria. Public officials in all three states are concerned about secondary infections after learning the woman, who is now in respiratory isolation in a Tupelo, Miss., hospital, visited locals in Tennessee and Georgia since returning from her trip. Dr. Valerie Boaz, health officer for Tennessee's Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department, says only those individuals who have never had measles or have not been sufficiently immunized are at risk; symptoms should present by June 19 through July 4 since the incubation time is anywhere from seven days to 18 days after exposure. Initial symptoms of the viral disease appear like a cold and progress to a red, blotchy rash on the face, which spreads to the rest of the body. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caution that untreated measles cases may lead to diarrhea, middle ear infections, pneumonia, and in rare cases, develop into encephalitis which may lead to convulsions, deafness, mental retardation, or possibly death.
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