Additional Measles Exposure in Massachusetts: Follow-up

New information concerning two cases of measles in Framingham, Massachusetts has surfaced. Health officials have warned the patients of a medical clinic in the town of Wellesley that they could have been exposed.

A Harvard Vanguard medical clinic in Wellesley contacted patients yesterday explaining that they may have been exposed to Measles last week after one of the two originally infected individuals visited the clinic.

A risk of measles exposure to Massachusetts's residents was confirmed at the start of this week after the Massachusetts Department of Health was able to positively diagnose measles in two patients who had been isolated after showing symptoms of the potentially deadly disease.

A trader Joe's in Framingham, Massachusetts was originally the only reported location where risk of exposure had been high. It had been discovered that both infected patients had visited the food-store between February 15 and 16, days prior to showing severe symptoms.

But now Department of Public Health Officials say a second location, a health clinic in the town of Wellesley, was also visited on February 17 by one of the two infected patients. Doctors from Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates report that they have been working with public health officials to contact and verify the immunization status of any and all patients that could have even shared the same sitting-room air as the infected patient.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles can be spread through the air, and is extremely contagious, with an estimated 90 percent of those exposed contracting the disease if not immunized.

Thankfully, the majority of the U.S. is immunized to the disease, making incidents of infection rare and isolated. Still, in the cases of those few exposed who have not received a measles vaccine, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is offering post-exposure Immune Globulin injections to those who may have come in contact with the infected. This injection can help prevent or modify a measles infection if administered within the first 6 days after exposures -- right before the first symptoms, a spreading rash and cough, begin.

Original information concerning the latest case of measles exposure in Massachusetts was published on February 24 and updated on February 25.

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