Here’s the trajectory of a communicable disease in an era of jet travel: A woman infected with measles travels from the U.K. into Dulles Airport in Virginia on Feb. 20. Two days later she flies from Baltimore Washington International Airport to Denver, where she transfers to another flight to Albuquerque. Now, according to the CDC, local and state health departments are trying to find people she might have exposed to measles during her travels. The unidentified 27-year-old woman wasn’t immunized against the disease, according to the Associated Press . If you think you might have been on her flight, or at the airport at the same time she was, and are experiencing symptoms including a fever or a blotchy rash, get thee to a doctor. According to the CDC , symptoms generally start between one and two weeks after

exposure. Early symptoms are a fever, runny nose, cough, red eyes and sore throat, and a few days after that, white spots may appear in the mouth. Within a few more days, the rash characteristic of measles appears. Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman, tells the Health Blog the usual procedure when an air traveler is infected with measles is to notify people sitting within five rows of the infected person. But because some of the flights were on Southwest, which has an open seating policy , that wasn’t possible — so authorities are trying to contact everyone on those flights. That will be labor- and cost-intensive, he says. “This serves as a reminder of the importance of being vaccinated against vaccine-preventable diseases,” says Skinner. Image: iStockphoto

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Air Travelers Warned About Possible Measles Exposure