Children with measles contagious on 4 flights

Passengers on four recent West Coast airline flights were exposed to red measles carried by children being adopted from China. The infants were traveling to their new homes in King and Snohomish counties and in Alaska, Florida, Maryland and New York.

Passengers on four recent West Coast airline flights were exposed to red measles carried by children being adopted from China. The infants were traveling to their new homes in King and Snohomish counties and in Alaska, Florida, Maryland and New York. Three of 10 children with confirmed or probable measles cases were infectious while they were on the flights, all on March 26. All were coming to Washington state, the state Department of Health said yesterday. The airline flights and locations in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were added to dozens of locations in King and Snohomish counties where contagious children may have exposed others before they were diagnosed with measles, or rubeola. The disease can have serious complications, including pneumonia, brain swelling and death. About 93 percent of U.S. residents are immune to measles either because they were vaccinated or because they had the disease as a child. (Source: Seattle Times, April 2004)