A passenger who traveled from the United Kingdom with measles walked through three US airports triggering a massive hunt for anyone who might have been passing by and could be at risk of becoming infected.

The infected woman went through Dulles International Airport (Washington DC), Denver International Airport and Albuquerque International airport last week, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Authorities inform that the CDC supplied health officials with data regarding passengers on the same flights as the woman with measles. They are desperately trying to track them all down and find out whether they are up-to-date with their shots.

The infected passenger who had flown in from the UK is from New Mexico. Colorado health officials informed their staff that she had been at Denver International Airport “for several hours” last Tuesday.

CDC officials cannot confirm, but believe the woman became ill while abroad.

The CDC informs that its own employees are liaising closely with state officials to establish who might have been at risk of infection. They have started with those who sat closest to the woman on the planes.

Measles is a highly infectious illness, it is a viral infection caused by the rubeola virus. Experts say it is an endemic disease – this means it is forever present in a community; many people develop resistance. If the virus enters an area where nobody has ever been exposed or vaccinated, the results can be devastating. An outbreak in Cuba in 1592 killed nearly two-thirds of the native population of the island. Two years later another outbreak in Honduras killed half of all the people in that country. In the 1850s about 20% of the people in Hawaii died from an outbreak of measles.

The rubeola virus stays in the mucus of the throat and nose of an infected person, who is contagious for four days after the rash appears, and continues to be so for approximately 4 to 5 days afterwards. The illness can pass on through physical contact with an infected person, being in close proximity when the infected individual coughs or sneezes, and touching a tainted surface (the virus can remain active for two hours).

About 180 people in Boston have been vaccinated at two clinics near to where the woman worked.

In the USA and several other countries, children need to be vaccinated if their parents want them to go to school. In 2008, 130 cases were reported in 15 states, the largest recent outbreak. As a considerable number of people in the USA have received their shots, an outbreak of the scale seen in the 16th century is virtually impossible.

Written by Christian Nordqvist