The Santa Clara County Public Health Department announced Jan. 26 two confirmed cases of a person infected with measles exposing residents locally at the Costco and Walmart stores in Gilroy on Jan. 18. An exposure was also reported the next day at Dave & Busters inside the Great Mall in Milpitas.
The person infected with measles visited the Gilroy Costco (7251 Camino Arroyo) between 4 to 6 p.m. and across the street at the Walmart (7150 Camino Arroyo) during the same time frame.
On Monday, Jan. 19, the same person visited Dave & Busters (940 Great Mall Drive) between 6 to 9 p.m. The individual did not walk through the Great Mall, according public health officials.
Since being notified of the exposure, public health officials have been working with these businesses to alert people who may have been exposed to measles so that employees and customers can check their vaccination records and make sure that they are protected, according to the Jan. 26 press release. The risk of developing infection after brief encounters with people with measles is low. But as a precaution, public health officials said people who were in any of the locations at the time listed should:
—Review their vaccination history, and talk with a healthcare provider about MMR vaccination;
—Monitor themselves for illness with fever and unexplained rash until Feb. 8. If symptoms develop, stay at home and call a healthcare provider immediately;
—You can only get measles once, so if you had the disease as a child, you are immune.
Measles is highly contagious yet easily prevented through vaccinations, according to public health officials. Measles can be prevented by the combination MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children get two doses: the first at 12 to 15 months of age and the second at 4 to 6 years of age.
“Measles vaccination protects not just the person being vaccinated but the community around them, including babies less than 12 months old who are too young to be vaccinated,” according to the Jan. 26 press release.
As of Jan. 22, 59 people in California have been confirmed with measles since the beginning of the year. Of those, 42—or 71 percent—have been linked to the Disneyland theme parks in Anaheim. In Santa Clara County, the two confirmed cases are both adults, but no indication of any links to Disneyland, noted a Jan. 24 press release from the Morgan Hill Unified School District.
“This means that measles may be circulating undetected in our community, although we don’t know how widely,” states the MHUSD announcement that can be viewed on the district website, mhusd.org.
For more information about measles, visit sccphd.org and click on “Measles information” or visit the CDC’s measles information page at cdc.gov/measles.
