5 new measles cases have MA doctors on alert

BOSTON -- Five new cases of measles, including a worker at South Station, have medical centers in Massachusetts on alert.

The new cases have all been reported within the past week. There are five new cases, and health officials say one of the patients is employed at Boston’s South Station and worked there while contagious.

“It just reminds me that travel is dangerous in some ways,” said Dan Robert.

One was a visitor from Europe and one recently returned from Spain. In three of the cases the patients did not travel and were not exposed to known cases. Doctors want to know how they contracted the measles.

The patients range in age from 16 months to 65 years old. So far there have been ten cases reported this year.

The recent cases come just a few months after a woman who worked at the French Consulate came down with it in February.

In the most recent cases authorities say only one patient lives in Boston while the other four were treated in Boston, visited the city, or worked there while contagious.

People are considered immune to measles if they’ve had two doses of measles containing the vaccine MMR or have had a blood test showing that they are immune to it. It spreads person to person through the air and is highly contagious.

Besides a rash that often starts on the face and spreads, symptoms include bloodshot eyes, cough, fever and muscle pain.

Health officials are saying that no link had been established between any of the cases. They did however say there is currently a measles outbreak in Europe.

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