Last week, officials in Virginia said there was a confirmed case of measles at Washington Dulles International Airport. They are now working to find anyone who may have been exposed to the very contagious virus.
On Sunday, the Virginia Department of Health said it had been told about the proven case. The person in question had just returned from a trip abroad on March 5.
Officials also said that between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. that day, Terminal A, the area where you take the shuttle to the main terminal and the area where you pick up your bags, could be a risk site.
Health officials are trying to find people who may have been exposed to the virus. This includes people at the airport and on certain planes.
The measles virus is moving across the U.S., and this is the latest case.
There was a case of the disease in a student in Miami-Dade County, Florida, last week. On Wednesday, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said there “may be more” cases.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) says that as of Friday morning, 198 people were infected with measles in Texas, which is the largest number of cases since January. Of these, 23 were hospitalized.
Most of the cases were found in school-aged children who had not been vaccinated. One of these children died from the disease.
New Mexico also had its first death from measles on Thursday, in an adult who had not been vaccine, according to state officials.
This week, in an opinion piece on Fox News Digital, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talked about his “deep concern” about the measles outbreak and how quickly it was spreading.
Kennedy said that even though there isn’t an approved vaccine for measles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week that vitamin A should be given as supportive care by a doctor.
Previous study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology has shown that giving children vitamin A along with the measles vaccine can help keep them from dying from measles.
Kennedy said again that getting enough vitamins A, B12, C, D, and E and eating a healthy diet are the “best defense against” chronic and infectious diseases.
He also told Fox News that he still supports personal freedom but suggests getting a measles shot to protect the community during the outbreak.
“We’re going to do what’s best for the American people,” Kennedy told Dr. Marc Siegel, the chief medical expert for Fox News.
“We’re going to be honest with the American people for the first time in history about all the tests, about all the studies, what we know, what we don’t know, and that’s going to anger some people who want an ideological approach to public health,'” the HHS secretary said.
While this is the case, the CDC says that “all children get two doses of MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine,” and people who don’t have “presumptive evidence of immunity should get at least one dose of MMR vaccine.”
