Local man exposes hospital to measles.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

A Eugene man who caught a case of the measles while visiting Japan potentially exposed more than 100 hospital patients, employees and visitors in Eugene and dozens of air travelers to the virulent and potentially deadly virus, hospital and public health officials said Thursday.

Other confirmed cases have yet to emerge, but Lane County Public Health and Sacred Heart Medical Center officials are contacting anyone who may have been exposed directly or indirectly to find out if they have immunity to measles.

At least three Sacred Heart employees, including one doctor, were found to have no immunity to measles and were told to stay home on paid leave for three weeks, hospital spokesman Brian Terrett said.

Lab tests returned Thursday confirmed the Eugene man had measles.

The man, who is now recovering at home and no longer contagious, was never vaccinated for measles, Lane County Public Health officer Dr. Sarah Hendrickson said.

"He came from a background of vaccine resisters," she said.

The vast majority of Americans - about 95 percent - have immunity to measles, either because they received two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine as children, or because they were born before 1957 and thus exposed to the virus, public health officials said.

In Lane County, slightly less than 5 percent of school-age children are exempted from state law requiring vaccinations because their parents oppose the shots on philosophical or religious grounds, public health nurse Martha deBroekert said.

The Eugene man, who is in his early 20s, flew back from Japan on May 22, changing planes in San Francisco.

He would have been contagious during those flights, said Dr. Paul Cieslak, communicable disease manager in the state Public Health division.

Passengers on those flights could have been exposed to measles, he said, but public health officials have found that air travel historically does not pose a high risk for the spread of disease.

Airlines circulate and refresh the air inside a plane several times an hour, he said. And if the patient was not coughing during the flight, measles is not that contagious, he said.

"It appears to be pretty rare," he said.

The Eugene patient showed up at Sacred Heart's emergency department on Saturday. Doctors diagnosed him with measles, and isolated him in a room in the progressive cardiac unit, Terrett said.

Because the progressive cardiac unit shares an air circulation system with the mother-baby unit, hospital officials have contacted patients in both sections to let them know they may have been exposed and to find out if they have immunity, Terrett said.

The hospital, in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is taking the most conservative approach to warning people they may have been exposed, even if the odds are extremely remote, Terrett said.

All told, Sacred Heart has contacted 36 nonemployees, mostly patients, who may have been exposed, to check their immunity and to offer tests for measles, Terrett said. He didn't know how many had been tested.

In addition, the hospital identified 21 employees who had primary exposure and 63 who had secondary exposure - meaning they had contact with someone who had direct exposure to the measles patient.

Most were able to prove their immunity, but three employees, including one doctor, are not immune to measles and were placed on paid admini- strative leave to avoid exposing others, Terrett said.

Public health officials, meanwhile, have contacted or left messages with about 15 people who had contact with the man outside the hospital, deBroekert said.

If a second wave of measles develops in the community, Sacred Heart officials may post a person outside the ER and its urgent care center to prevent potentially infectious people from walking in and exposing others, Terrett said.

Public health officials urged anyone who thinks they may have measles to call ahead before showing up at the doctor's office or the ER and potentially exposing others.

The last confirmed case of measles in Lane County was 1980, when a school-age teenager caught the measles in Japan.

More than 60 people got sick with measles over a three-month period. No one died, but a number of people were hospitalized, deBroekert said.

Measles is spread by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions from infected people, and sometimes through airborne transmission. "Measles is incredibly contagious," Hendrickson said.

The rare case of measles that shows up in Oregon is "always imported," Cieslak said. "We tend to see a case or two, then it peters out" because most people here are immune.

Symptoms that appear with the onset of measles can be mistaken for the common cold: a cough, runny nose, eye irritation and fever.

Then comes a red, blotchy rash that starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body.

About six in 100 cases develop pneumonia, and a smaller percentage suffer a brain infection.

About 1 case in 500 is fatal.

Japan is now in the throes of a measles outbreak, with more than 700 cases reported so far this year, according to published reports.

Earlier this week, Canadian public health officials quarantined more than 130 Japanese tourists, most of them students, for two days in a Banff hotel because of a measles scare.

MEASLES

People who think they have contracted measles should call their doctor or the emergency room before showing up, to avoid exposing others to the virus

Anyone who visited Sacred Heart Medical Center for more than four hours on May 26 or 27, particularly in the progressive cardiac or mother-baby units, may call the hospital at 868-3402 to find out if they should get tested for measles

Lane County Public Health officials are asking that anyone who flew on United Flight 6406 from San Francisco to Eugene on May 22, call 682-4041 to find out if they need to be tested.