One International passenger prompts DPH warning on measles

Logan Airport serves around 8 million international travelers each year. Last week, one of them had measles.

That led the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to issue an advisory to anyone who may have come in contact with this individual. The DPH said that on June 22, this international traveler boarded a Dartmouth Coach bus in Hanover, New Hampshire for a two-hour ride to Logan.

The infected individual spent the next six hours at Logan, finally departing on a KLM flight to Amsterdam.

Potentially hundreds of fellow travelers may have been exposed to the virus, which spreads from the respiratory tract through exhalation, coughing and even talking.

Those vaccinated against measles have little reason to worry -- and that would be the majority of Americans, likely vaccinated in childhood using an MMR vaccine. In fact, measles was considered eradicated in the U.S. because of vaccination almost 25 years ago.

The infection is still quite common in other countries -- the primary source of outbreaks here. And it doesn’t take long to spread. The CDC reports that measles is likely to infect 90% of unprotected individuals who come in contact with an infected person. One study estimated measles can be 60 times more contagious than Omicron, one of Covid’s fastest-spreading variants.

Initially, measles comes on like the flu -- with fever and cough. Within two to four days, the characteristic rash appears along with a spiking fever. That phase lasts about 5 to 6 days. But a person is considered infectious up to four days after the rash clears.

There is no specific treatment for measles. And in most cases, the infection resolves without permanent damage. But complications can occur -- especially in children. And some of these can be fatal -- including encephalitis and pneumonia.