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Boston Globe

A person with measles traveled in DC while contagious, officials say

'D.C. has a very high vaccination rate for measles, so the opportunity for an outbreak in the District is very low,' Saafir-Callaway said. Advertisement The individual seems to be recovering and has not been hospitalized, she said. The person was vaccinated, she said. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Amtrak is reaching out directly to customers who were on the train to notify them of possible exposure, rail officials said in a statement. The individual was a passenger on the Northeast Regional 175, DC officials said. The train typically runs from Boston to the District, according to the Amtrak website. As of Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was not tracking any cases from Minnesota this year, according to the CDC website. Ahead of spring and summer travel season, the agency also urged health-care providers to share vaccination guidelines and be vigilant if measles-like symptoms appear in patients. Separately, three cases of measles related to international travel were reported by the Maryland Department of Health earlier this month. It's common for regional health officials to report a handful of cases annually in people who contracted the illness while out of the country. Outbreaks in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, however, have been linked to unvaccinated people or people whose vaccination status is unknown, public health officials said. More than 300 cases have been associated with the outbreaks, including two people who died of measles-related illness. District officials said the person with the confirmed case visited multiple areas in DC, and are trying to identify people who may have come into contact with the virus at the following locations: Advertisement - Amtrak Northeast Regional 175 Train Southbound on March 19 between 7:30 p.m. and March 20 at 1:30 a.m. - Amtrak Concourse at Union Station, 50 Massachusetts Ave. in Northeast, on March 19 between 11 p.m. and March 20 at 1:30 a.m. - MedStar Urgent Care in Adams Morgan, at 1805 Columbia Rd. in Northwest, on March 22 between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Anyone who may have been exposed - especially those not fully vaccinated or otherwise immune to measles who were at any of these locations during the possible exposure times - should contact their health-care provider or the DC health department at 844-493-2652. Exposed people who develop a fever or other symptoms of measles should not go out in public and should contact their health-care provider before going to a hospital waiting room or emergency department, to prevent further spread. Early symptoms of measles include a fever above 101 degrees, runny nose, cough, and red, watery eyes. Usually, one to four days after the early symptoms, a red rash appears on the face and spreads to the rest of the body. A person with measles is contagious, beginning four days before the rash appears until four days after the rash begins, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People are generally considered immune to measles if they are current on their vaccination, have had a lab-confirmed case during their lifetime or are immune to measles, or were born before 1957. Geeta Sood, an infectious-disease physician at Johns Hopkins University, said the best approach to the increase in measles cases is to prevent infection through vaccination. Sood said the vaccines is 93 percent effective at one dose and 97 percent at two doses. Advertisement 'That's what is going to prevent this exposure ... from spinning completely out of control as it has in Texas and other areas,' she said. Sood said she and most doctors in her field have not seen measles cases so far in their careers because it 'has been essentially eradicated in this country other than imported cases.' However, infection is a serious concern for people who are not fully vaccinated or unvaccinated, such as children under a year old and immunosuppressed individuals, she said. That is why, Sood said, so many physicians are 'aghast' at the fact that measles cases are growing and the best prevention tool - vaccination - isn't being fully deployed due to hesitancy. Public health is not as trusted as it once was due to the pandemic as well and misinformation and disinformation campaigns, she said. 'It's not a surprise that even well-meaning parents may be confused about the benefits and risks, which are almost none in this situation,' Sood said.