The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is advising the public that a confirmed case of measles has been identified in Rhode Island, the state’s first confirmed case since 2013.
This was a case in a young, unvaccinated child with a recent history of international travel. This child was hospitalized at Hasbro Children’s earlier this month. The child is now at home and is well. This child did not have any school or daycare contacts. The risk to the public is considered low. Contact tracing is being done.
Adding on their measles page:
Measles symptoms appear 7 to 14 days after exposure to the virus.
And that’s why it spreads so quickly. People who don’t even know they are contagious are walking around infecting people. More from Johns Hopkins Medicine:
Measles is a highly contagious viral infection — one of the most contagious of all known infections. Nine out of 10 unimmunized children who are in contact with an infected person will contract the virus. The virus can linger in the air for about two hours after a person with measles has left the room. It can infect those who enter the room if they are unimmunized.
So a person can catch measles in an empty room. One child has already died in Texas.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. Don’t forget to thank Jenny McCarthy and her fellow experts in the Mennonite community.