BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The Kern County Department of Public Health issued a warning Friday about a potential measles exposure in the county in the last two weeks.
KCDPH says someone diagnosed with measles travled through Kern County while infectious on July 23 and visited the Popeye's Louisiana Chicken restaurant at 5552 South Wheeler Ridge Road in Arvin near the Tejon Outlets off Laval Road.
The Health Department says anyone who visited that location on that date between 3:25 p.m. and 5 p.m. may have been exposed to measles, a highly contagious disease.
There have been no confirmed cases of measles in Kern County residents this year and there is no known ongoing risk to the public.
The measles spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes and will stay in the air for up to one hour afterwards, according to KCDPH.
Anyone who may have been exposed to the disease should watch for symptoms until Aug. 13.
Measles symptoms can include high fever (101°F and above), cough, runny nose, red eyes and a rash that starts at the hairline and travels downward to the rest of the body. Measles can develop into pneumonia and cause life-threatening complications.
If you have symptoms, contact your healthcare provider by phone. Please do not enter a healthcare facility -- a doctor’s office, urgent care, or an emergency room -- without first notifying the facility that you may have been exposed to measles and now have symptoms.
To avoid spread of this disease, if you have symptoms, please stay home until you have been evaluated by a medical professional and avoid going to school, work or other public places.
According to the Health Department, most people who were born or attended elementary school in the U.S. after 1970 have been vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) or the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine (MMRV). Two doses of measles-containing vaccine prevents the measles disease in more than 99% of cases. Most people who were born prior to 1957 had measles as a child and are immune to measles disease.
For more information call (661) 321-3000.
