Doctors worry about spring break as measles cases spread: Not ‘dealing with business-as-usual’
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Experts are warning about the burgeoning threat of the measles virus, as families and students gear up for spring break.
The viral disease has resulted in nearly 160 infections in Texas and more in other states around the country. An unvaccinated child died last month in the Lone Star State and a second person in neighboring New Mexico may have also died as a result of the outbreak.
Approximately one out of five people who get measles will be hospitalized.
Last year, the government issued a travel advisory after just 58 cases were reported. Now, experts are warning about this year’s spring break travel.
“It’s not so much about who you’re traveling with as it’s about the people you don’t know that you’re going to be around as you’re traveling,” Mark Dworkin, associate director of epidemiology at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, told CBS News this week. “You get on a plane. You’re with a whole lot of people. Everybody’s got a different feeling about everything, and that includes about immunizations.”
This year, roughly 173 million Americans are expected to take to the skies in March and April, Airlines for America told ABC News.
Those who have been fully vaccinated have lifelong protection, and two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine are 97 percent effective against measles.
While the majority of the nation’s adolescents have two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine or more, breakthrough infections have occurred in the recent outbreak. Those types of infections are more likely in areas with outbreaks.
Breakthrough infections are usually associated with milder disease and symptoms, including fever, runny nose and other symptoms.
Still, measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases, with the ability to live for up to two hours in the air after someone who is infected leaves. Some people may not know they have it, as the viral incubation period is typically between 11 to 12 days from exposure to the point when symptoms start.
“About three out of 100 people who get two doses of MMR vaccine will get measles if exposed to the virus. However, they are more likely to have a milder illness, and are also less likely to spread the disease to other people,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Officials are warning those who remain unvaccinated against measles about the risk of traveling.
“We’re not dealing with business-as-usual right now,” Dworkin said, “and this is a disease that people who are incubating this disease who are going to get it, they can be infectious days before they even start to get sick.”
