Countywide : Red Measles in County Infect 120 in 4 Months

About 120 people in Orange County have contracted red measles in the first 4 months of 1989--more than in all of last year, according to county epidemiologist Thomas Prendergast.

And in some of this year’s cases, the disease has spread from patients to the hospital staff and their children, Prendergast said.

“We have evidence it spread to staff and/or patients in nine hospitals and in doctors’ offices as well,” he said. In some cases patients who visit a hospital daily for radiation treatment were exposed and then exposed other patients, he said. “We do recommend hospital emergency rooms keep people with rashes separate from other patients,” Prendergast said.

Red measles is highly contagious and is characterized by a high fever, a barking cough, nasal congestion and a red rash over the entire body. The illness usually lasts 7 to 10 days. The illness is different than German measles, or rubella, a mild infection that also results in a rash.

Red measles broke out in the winter of 1988 at Newport Harbor High School and lasted until about May. This year’s outbreak actually began last October, Prendergast said. “It’s gone long enough now that we have more cases now in 4 months than in all of last year when there were 109 cases.”

Prendergast said he has been surprised to learn that in three or four of the measles cases, the patient also developed hepatitis from the measles virus. That appears to be an unusual side effect, Prendergast said.

As evidence of the continuing problem with measles, county health officials this week are sending notices to students at Mission Viejo and Villa Park high schools, urging that they be immunized. Prendergast said county health officials have changed their recommendation that children be immunized against measles every 15 months and now recommend that they be immunized as often as every 12 months.