One day after public health officials announced a 15th person has been diagnosed with measles in Cook County, the Lake County Health Department warned residents about the potential for exposure.
One day after public health officials announced a 15th person has been diagnosed with measles in Cook County, the Lake County Health Department warned residents about the potential for exposure.
Officials said the latest person to test positive for the virus visited Lake County at a time when they could have been contagious.
The health department warned that residents who visited or worked at the Menards store at 2700 W. Lake Cook Rd. in Long Grove between 7:55 a.m. and 3:20 p.m. Feb. 15 may have been exposed.
Epidemiologist Victor Plotkin with the Lake County Health Department asks that Menards employees and customers who were in this store during that time take inventory of any unusual symptoms they may be experiencing.
"Measles starts as a cold illness, a non-specific cold illness," Plotkin said. "Because of how contagious it is, it can spread like a fire. Therefore, we are taking no chances."
Clinics offering free measles, mumps, rubella vaccines will be offered for customers and employees of the store who feel they may have been exposed, the department said.
"The measles vaccine is safe, effective and the best protection against this disease," Tony Beltran, the Lake County Health Department's executive director, said in a statement. "Before the U.S. measles vaccination program started in 1963, about 3 to 4 million people in the U.S. got measles each year, 400 to 500 of them died and 48,000 were hospitalized."
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Health officials said there have been no confirmed measles cases in Lake County as of Thursday afternoon.
All 15 cases reported statewide are in Cook County and 13 of them are related to the outbreak at the KinderCare Learning Center, including one adult and 12 infants.
Officials say the latest case is an adult, but does not appear to be related to the KinderCare Learning Center at the center of a northwest suburban outbreak.
Illinois health officials are still trying to figure out how the people became infected with the measles virus. No ties have been found to the December outbreak at Disneyland in California, health officials said.
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease that can cause severe health complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis and death.
