State confirms measles case in Alaskan who traveled overseas

An Alaska resident was hospitalized with a measles infection after flying home from an overseas trip through Seattle on Jan. 10, then driving from the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to their home on the Kenai Peninsula, according to state health officials.

The infected individual, who has not been identified, was unvaccinated and began experiencing symptoms on an international flight to Seattle, according to a public health alert blasted primarily to in-state medical providers Thursday afternoon.

The patient was initially hospitalized in Homer at South Peninsula Hospital on Monday with “classic measles signs and symptoms,” including a high fever, cough and widespread rash that started on the face and progressed downward to other parts of the body, said state epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin.

The person on Tuesday was taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, where they’ve remained in isolation, the notice said. The resident’s lab test came back positive on Wednesday. The patient is recovering and is expected to be discharged in the coming days, officials said.

To protect the person’s privacy, the state health department isn’t naming the person, or disclosing where they traveled from or other details.

The single case triggered a public health alert and efforts to identify close contacts of the infected individual. Measles is a respiratory disease, among the “most-transmissible viruses in the world,” that can spread through imperceptible air particles when an infected person coughs, sneezes or even breathes, said McLaughlin.

Measles typically starts with a fever, runny nose, cough, red eyes and sore throat, and is followed by a rash. It can lead to complications, including pneumonia and ear infections, and can even be fatal, McLaughlin said. Infants, pregnant women and immunocompromised people have a heightened risk of complications, he added.

“Fortunately, we have one of the most effective vaccines on the planet for measles,” McLaughlin said. The MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps and rubella, and is typically administered in two doses to children at 12 months and 5 years old. The vaccine is 97% effective for life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only three groups of people are considered immune from the virus: those who had prior infection, those who have been vaccinated and adults born before 1957 due to widespread exposure in the pre-vaccine era, McLaughlin said.

State and federal health officials are in the process of tracking down and contacting all individuals who were in close contact with the patient and offering them post-exposure preventive treatment, said McLaughlin. Among them: the patient’s family members, passengers and crew within a two-row radius on the patient’s initial international flight to Seattle, individuals on Alaska Airlines Flight 228 from Seattle to Anchorage on Jan. 10, and additional arriving passengers at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport between 10 p.m. Jan. 10 to 12 a.m. Jan. 11, he said.

Meanwhile, the Washington State Department of Health published a list of public locations where the infected individual traveled inside Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in order to publicly notify potentially impacted people.

The virus can remain in the air for up to two hours, and it takes an average of 12 days for exposed and susceptible individuals to show symptoms.

“That’s another reason why measles is a little bit trickier to manage: because it has a longer incubation period,” McLaughlin said.

As of Friday afternoon, McLaughlin said there have been no additional confirmed cases, but that the department is aware of at least “several dozen people” who appear to be contacts. The state health department is working with the CDC and other state health agencies to solidify that number, and “to determine exactly how many of them are immune to measles due to prior vaccination or infection.”

McLaughlin said at least one non-immune person was exposed to the virus and offered preventive treatment, but that person’s parents declined treatment.

Worldwide, measles outbreaks are on the rise, according to the CDC. Last year, there were 284 confirmed cases in the United States. By comparison, there were 59 confirmed measles cases in the United States the year before.

In Alaska, the last known case was in 2019, McLaughlin said.

“It seems like every two to three years, we’ll get a sporadic case of measles,” he said. “Oftentimes it’s on a cruise ship passenger who’s coming into Alaska, but not always.”

As of Dec. 31, 79% of children ages 19 to 35 months old had received one dose of the MMR vaccine, and 83% of children between 5 and 18 years old had received a second dose, according to Sarah Aho, the state’s immunization program manager.

The national MMR vaccination rate for the 2023-24 school year was about 93%.

The Alaska Department of Health hasn’t publicly broadcast the news, which went out through a health alert listserv system Thursday afternoon, primarily to other health care providers, said public information officer Alex Huseman.

“At this time, because it’s just a singular measles case, and they came back from the Anchorage airport and went straight home, there haven’t been any (more) cases of transmission,” Huseman said. “We’re reaching out to those who may have been around them, but that number is so small that we’re coordinating those efforts internally. We don’t want anyone to feel like the entire state has a measles outbreak.”

If you’re concerned about exposure to measles, call your health care provider or the Alaska Section of Epidemiology at 907-269-8000, or 800-478-0084 after hours. If you believe you’ve been exposed to a measles case, health care officials recommend calling your provider prior to going into the clinic to facilitate isolated testing.