about four sites where people may have been exposed to measles, as the number of cases increases.
Confirmed measles cases have spread outside the initial eight southwest Kansas counties, with one case con- firmed in Wichita and anoth er in Hutchinson. As of last Wednesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had reported 48 cases statewide. That number doesn’t yet include the cases in Sedgwick or Reno counties.
In Wichita, the Sedgwick County Health Department lists two possible exposure sites. Anyone who was at the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport from 6:15 p.m. to 9 p.m. May 2 should monitor symptoms until May 23. And anyone at Carnicerias El Guero No. 1 grocery store, 524 W. 21st St N. in Wichita, from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. April 29 should monitor symptoms until May 20.
Adrienne Byrne, Sedgwick County health director, said the delay in letting the public know about measles exposure happens because symptoms can take time to show up.
“Once someone is infected, it takes one to two weeks for symptoms to show,” she said.
Initial symptoms of fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes can be mistaken for a cold or flu, Byrne said. Then within two or three days, tiny white spots inside the mouth can occur with a bluish white center, then shortly after a rash forms.
It’s not until the rash appears that many people realize they have measles, she said.
“By that time, they’re almost at the end of their infectious period because people are infectious four days before the rash and four days after the rash,” Byrne said.
Once health ovcials be come aware of a case, epidemiologists work with the infected person and their family to figure out where they might have been in the preceding days.
