About 200 patients, incuding a 7-year-old boy with a terminal illness, were potentially exposed to measles by an unvaccinated child at University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, according to The Sacramento Bee.
Rayna Bell took her son Jackson to the hospital's emergency room March 17 after he experienced a seizure. As a baby, Jackson was diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis, a rare genetic disease that causes tumors to grow in the brain and other organs, reports WFLX Fox 29.
Physicians told Ms. Bell her son was exposed to measles by an unvaccinated child who contracted the virus while traveling overseas. The child sought treatment in the same ER as Jackson, according to Dean Blumberg, MD, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Health. Physicians were unaware the child had measles when she was in the ER.
"It was less than an hour of separation between them, so, there was potentially still measles virus in the air," Dr. Blumberg told WFLX Fox 29.
UC Davis Health sent letters to about 200 other patients who may have also been exposed to measles in the ED, according to The Sacramento Bee.
Dr. Blumberg said Jackson did not contract the virus. However, Ms. Bell noted her son had to be quarantined in the hospital for 18 days.
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