Travelers at LAX may have been exposed to measles


Travelers who passed through Los Angeles International Airport in late February may have been exposed to measles, health officials announced Tuesday.
Officials say a passenger who arrived on a China Eastern Airlines flight on Feb. 21 and had a layover at the airport has been diagnosed with the highly contagious disease, and those who were in Terminal B and the Delta Terminal between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. may have been exposed, the Los Angeles Times reports. Anyone who sat next to this person on a flight will be notified directly.
The disease is spread by droplets produced from coughing or sneezing, and the virus can stay in a room for two hours after an infected person leaves. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that one out of every four children who gets the disease will be hospitalized, and two out of every 1,000 will die. As it can take up to three weeks for symptoms like a rash, runny nose, and cough to appear, health officials said if individuals who were at LAX on Feb. 21 do not develop symptoms by Thursday, they are no longer at risk of developing measles.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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