State officials are tracing the possible spread of measles in Maine after a case was confirmed last week in Penobscot County.
No new measles cases had been confirmed as of Wednesday, Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said, but officials have been using contact tracing to track anyone who may have come in contact with the person who was infected.
The first case of measles in Maine in seven years was confirmed on Feb. 6 by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 900 cases have been confirmed across nearly half the U.S. states this year, according to data compiled by the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
When a case of an infectious disease, such as measles, is confirmed, the Maine DHHS and CDC start by asking the infected person if they are vaccinated. If they are not or are unsure of their vaccination status, the CDC works to determine when they were infectious, which is typically four days before a rash develops and for up to four days afterward, Hammes said.
The CDC then “goes hour-by-hour to determine where that person went, and tries to discern who they may have encountered,” Hammes said.
The CDC then works to contact those people about the possible exposure, Hammes said.
The person diagnosed with measles in Maine was infectious from Jan. 28 through Feb. 5, DHHS previously said. In those eight days, the infected person was at St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor on Feb. 3 and a shed and barn business in Etna on Jan. 28 and 29, according to the release.
Hill View Mini Barns in Etna did not respond to a request for comment.
The infected person recently traveled to a state with measles cases. Hammes did not say which state the infected person traveled to.
St. Joseph Hospital can’t share any information about the individual case because of privacy laws, spokesperson Karen Sullivan previously said, but did confirm one of the hospital’s patients was treated for an infectious disease. The hospital has followed infection-control protocols since the case was confirmed, Sullivan said.
“We can confirm that appropriate infection-control protocols are in place and that our team is working in accordance with public health guidance to ensure the safety of our patients, staff, and community,” Sullivan said on Feb. 6.
When the CDC contacts people who were possibly infected, officials provide steps those people can take to limit the measles’ effects on them.
People who are unvaccinated for measles can get a vaccine within 72 hours of exposure or receive post-exposure prophylaxis medicine that can prevent measles developing after exposure, Hammes said.
Northern Light Health has not seen a surge in measles vaccine requests since the initial case was announced, but people have asked more questions about their vaccine status, Dr. James Jarvis, director of clinical education for Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, said.
Most Mainers have been vaccinated for measles, but some people may have not received the two recommended doses of the vaccine or may be immune suppressed, Jarvis said. Health care providers can test someone’s immunities if they’re unsure about their status, he said.
“In health care, it’s not uncommon for us to test people to see if they have immunity against measles, and if they’re not, then we revaccinate them,” Jarvis said.
Measles’ symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, a rash that spreads from the head down and red, watery eyes. People with these symptoms are advised to contact their health provider for instructions before going to the provider’s office or a hospital to prevent the spread of further infection.
This is the first case of measles Jarvis has seen in 33 years in medicine, but he said he was preparing for a possible case with information that the Maine Medical Association spread across the state. The information was gathered before the case was confirmed because it was “inevitable” that measles would spread to Maine, he said.
“I think this probably was inevitable just because of the fact that we were seeing some high number of cases of measles in other parts of the country, and so with travel and things like that, it really is not surprising to me that we have a single case at this time,” Jarvis said.
Maine was the first New England state to have a confirmed case of measles this year. The Vermont Department of Health confirmed the state had its first case on Thursday.
