The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) is extending a warning about potential exposure to measles. The agency says people who traveled through Terminal A at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Jan. 27 and Jan. 29, 2024, may have been exposed.
Specifically, people who were in the terminal from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Jan. 27, and from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 29.
The health department announced Saturday the state's first case of measles in 2024 was identified in Montgomery County. Public Health of Dayton and Montgomery County says a case of measles was identified in someone who lives in Montgomery County who was evaluated at Dayton Children's Hospital. Anyone who was in the main campus Emergency Department at One Children's Plaza between 11 p.m. on Jan. 29 and 7 a.m. on Jan. 20, and on Jan. 31 from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., may have been exposed.
RELATED: Columbus, Ohio, was stricken by a measles outbreak in 2022
Public Health of Dayton and Montgomery County says it's notifying contacts of the individual to assess their measles vaccination status. ODH is also working to identify and notify those who may have been exposed.
Regarding the airport exposure, ODH says it's working with the "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other state and local health officials to identify people who might have been exposed, including contacting potentially exposed passengers on specific flights."
According to the state health department, Ohio had one case of measles in 2023 and 90 in 2022 following an outbreak in central Ohio. The outbreak was the first case of measles in the state since 2019.
About measles
The CDC recommends the measles vaccine — or MMR, for measles, mumps and rubella — for all children, with the first of two doses at 12-15 months and the second at 4-6 years old. The vaccine is 97% effective against measles, and the CDC says if you're up to date on the vaccine the risk of illness is very low.
Symptoms usually appear in two stages, starting within seven to 14 days of being exposed. The first stage of symptoms includes fever higher than 101 degrees, runny nose, watery red eyes, and cough. Three to five days after symptoms start, a rash will appear on the face and spread to the rest of the body.
FROM 2014: Ohio is the focal point for largest measles outbreak in 20 years
If you have measles you are considered contagious from four days before the rash appears, the agency says, through four days after the rash appeared.
The prevalence of measles has been increasing internationally, according to the CDC, as well as in the United States. The agency reports 136,000 people — mostly children — died from measles worldwide in 2022.
As of late January, the CDC had reported nine cases of measles in the U.S. in Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
