Public Health: Man infected with measles visited Seattle area

SEATTLE -- The World Health Organization says measles cases are up nearly 300 percent from last year. So far this year, there have been more than 760 cases of measles reported in 23 states across the U.S., including Washington.

Just as our region seems to be calming down, there’s a new measles scare in King County.

Health Officials say a man from Canada contracted the measles prior to a visit to Seattle last week. Health officials say the infected man visited several Seattle locations, including some popular tourist spots. He also made multiple stops at different coffee shops. Health officials say he traveled through SeaTac airport. Before that, he spent time in Japan and New York, two places that currently have measles outbreaks.

“We know there are lots of people out there in the hospital, but also in the community, who are at high risk for bad outcomes from infectious diseases, including measles,” says Dr. John Lynch, Medical Director of Infection Control at Harborview Medical Center.

This latest measles scare comes just one week after Clark County Public Health declared an end to their measles outbreak after six weeks of no new cases.

But nationally, the number of measles cases in the nation has climbed to 764, according to the CDC. And if you plan to travel internationally and you haven’t been vaccinated, the CDC recommends you get that done two to three weeks before you leave, to make sure you are protected.

“If you don’t know if you’ve been vaccinated or you don’t know what kind of vaccine you would have gotten, and you were a kid between 1963 and 1967, you should talk to your doctor about whether you need to get vaccinated again,” says Lynch.

Here is the list of locations from the blog post that the man visited between April 21 and April 28:

Health officials said the list is not complete, but will be updated as new locations are confirmed.