US health authorities on alert after girl with measles visited Disneyland
6281 Min Read
A teenage girl from New Zealand sick with measles visited Disneyland and other popular tourist stops across Southern California earlier this month, possibly infecting others, local government health officials warned.
The alert comes amid the worst outbreak of measles in the United States in a quarter century.
US authorities said that the girl was in Southern California from Aug. 11 to Aug. 15 and are now trying to identify others who are at risk for measles and may have been exposed by the girl.
During her stay in Southern California the girl visited the Universal Studios Theme Park and several destinations in Hollywood and Santa Monica, Los Angeles health officials said, adding that anyone who was also at those locations may be at risk of developing measles.
Health officials said she visited Disneyland in Anaheim on Aug. 12 and stayed at the nearby Desert Palms Hotel. There was no information on her current condition.
The disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, meaning there was no continuous transmission for at least a year. CDC officials say the United States risks losing its measles elimination status if the current outbreak, which began in October 2018 in New York state, continues until October 2019.
The CDC said earlier this week that there had been a 1.8% increase in the number of cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly virus in the United States between Aug. 8 and Aug. 15.
