A week after five new measles cases were detected in the state, two more Marylanders tested positive for the highly contagious disease, health officials said Wednesday.
Two people in Southern Maryland traveled to a part of the country that’s having a measles outbreak, where they contracted it, the Maryland Department of Health said in a news release. Health officials did not say where the two people traveled.
Health officials said people who visited J&R Feeds LLC in Mechanicsville from July 16-21, MedStar Health Urgent Care in Charlotte Hall on Monday from 8:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m. or MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital emergency room on Tuesday from 11 a.m.-6:45 p.m. could have been exposed.
The St. Mary’s County government has opened a call center for residents seeking information and is offering measles vaccinations Thursday and Friday.
People who have not received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination and suspect they’ve been exposed should monitor for early symptoms, which include a cough, fever of more than 101 degrees, red eyes and a runny nose. A red rash usually appears after one to four days and spreads to the rest of the body.
Measles can easily spread after an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes, lingering in the air for up to two hours after they leave.
The two new cases bring the total of measles cases in Maryland this year to 11. That figure includes five people in Carroll County who had traveled to a place domestically that’s having a measles outbreak.
The first case in Maryland this year was reported in a Baltimore-area resident in April. A week later, two more people tested positive in Anne Arundel County. And last month a Marylander contracted measles after traveling internationally.
Maryland’s rise in cases is adding to the growing number of measles infections across the country. There have been 2,260 measles cases in the United States this year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not far off from last year’s record-breaking 2,289 infections.





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