Santa Clara County health leaders are working to alert people who may have been exposed to measles.
The hyper contagious virus was brought in by someone visiting from out of state and officials are specifically concerned about three places that person visited.
The Starbucks on Blossom Hill Road in Los Gatos is one of those county health leaders say a person with highly contagious measles visited on July 1, sometime between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.
The sick person then dined at Taqueria Los Pericos on Water Street in Santa Cruz from 6 to 10 p.m. the same day.
Doctors say the next morning, the infected person headed to San Jose International and was there from 5:15 to 7:30 a.m. before catching a Southwest flight to Chicago.
Now, public health leaders are trying to reach 90 Santa Clara County residents on that flight who may have been exposed, and warning anyone who visited those businesses that they should watch for symptoms.
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“One of the challenges is that measles stays in the air for up to an hour or more after the infected person leaves the room. So the virus is still there even when they are not there,” Dr. Monika Roy of Santa Clara County Public Health, said.
She said it’s important people take action if they think they’ve been exposed.
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“The main thing is check your vaccination status, especially if you are pregnant and contact your health care provider immediately,” Roy said.
Symptoms of measles include a red blotchy rash, cough, runny nose, red eyes, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Anyone with those symptoms should contact their doctor and isolate immediately.
Dr. Roy says if you’ve had a measles vaccine it offers very strong protection against the virus but it is not foolproof.
