26 April 2019 Blog Post: On Measles
Nearly 300 students and staff from two local universities are now under measles quarantine. Of the 38 cases of measles in California this year, more than three-quarters of California’s known measles patients were either not vaccinated or did not receive the recommended two doses of vaccine.
Some patients may not know whether or not they have received the two doses of vaccine due to lost or inaccessible pediatric records. So what are your options in that case?
You have two options. You can test for immunity (which is a blood test we perform Santa Monica Primary Care) or we can just give 2 doses of Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR) vaccine at least 4 weeks apart. There is no harm in giving MMR vaccine to a person who may already be immune to one or more of the vaccine viruses. If you opt for testing, and the tests indicate that you are not immune to one or more of the vaccine components, then we give 2 doses of MMR at least 4 weeks apart. If any test results are indeterminate or equivocal, we consider you non-immune.
Measles is highly infectious. I repeat – highly infectious. It is primarily transmitted from person to person via large respiratory droplets. Airborne transmission via aerosolized droplets has been documented in closed areas (such as an office examination room) for up to 2 hours after a person with measles occupied the area. Following exposure, more than 90% of susceptible people develop measles. The virus can be transmitted from 4 days before the typical measles rash becomes visible to 4 days after the rash appears.
𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗨𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿
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