KDHE Home - News 2000 - News Release
Kansas
Department of Health & Environment
Bill Graves, Governor
Clyde D. Graeber, Secretary
For Immediate Release
Contact: Sharon Watson, 785-296-5795
Health Officials Respond to First Case of Measles Since 1996
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has confirmed one case of measles in Northeast Kansas in a foreign-born young woman who recently arrived in Kansas. The last measles case in the state was reported to the department in 1996.
KDHE epidemiologists and disease intervention specialists, with the help of local health officials, quickly identified several persons who may have had close contact with the individual at the time she was infectious. These people were given measles vaccine and immunoglobulins, which are effective in preventing the disease if administered within a few days from the time a person is exposed.
Anyone who has been previously vaccinated against measles or who has had measles earlier in life is at little or no risk of developing the infection.
Based upon the incubation period for measles, officials believe the woman acquired the infection before arriving in Kansas. The woman is originally from a country where measles vaccination is limited.
"While vaccine-preventable diseases are now quite rare in Kansas, this is an example of how easily they can be re-introduced by travelers from around the globe," said Gianfranco Pezzino, M.D., State Epidemiologist. "Sustaining high immunization rates is the best defense against these outside threats."
The case was clinically diagnosed by a physician, who reported it to the local health department and KDHE. The state health agency confirmed the case through testing performed by the state Division of Health and Environmental Laboratories.
KDHE and local health departments continue to watch for other possible cases, but are hopeful that their prompt intervention may prevent the spread of the disease.
Measles is a contagious viral disease spread through the air by droplets from the nose, throat, and mouth of an infected person. Measles causes a rash, sometimes with mild itching, and is always accompanied by fever and a hacking cough and sometimes by eye sensitivity to light. The fever usually subsides in three to five days, but most children who become infected must remain out of school for a week to ten days.
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