The Virginia Department of Health has updated the places where a child with the measles could have exposed others in the state’s first case of the disease this year.
The Health Department announced its first case on April 19 — a child 4 years old or younger who lives in the northwest region of the state.
The child, whom officials are not publicly naming to protect the family’s privacy, had traveled internationally before contracting the measles.
The Health Department warned in a release that the patient was at the Kaiser Permanente Caton Hill Medical Center in Woodbridge on April 15 from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., specifically the advanced urgent care, pharmacy, laboratory and radiology departments.
The child was also at the pediatrics department of Kaiser Permanente Fredericksburg Medical Center from 12-5 p.m. on April 16.
People who have never received a measles-only or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine are considered at risk. The Health Department urged people at risk who were at the areas of the exposed health care facilities on those dates to contact their health care provider.
The Health Department did not specify the child’s vaccination status.
Two doses of the MMR vaccine have a 97% efficacy rate in preventing measles, while one dose is 93% effective, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website.
People should watch for measles symptoms to begin within 21 days of potential exposure, the Health Department said.
Symptoms start a week to two weeks after exposure with a fever over 101 degrees, a cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. Three to five days after those symptoms begin, patients begin developing a rash that spreads to the rest of the body.
Measles patients are contagious from four days before the rash appears to four days after.
