Health officials have warned about a potential measles outbreak at New York’s JFK International Airport.
A child who entered the country on a China Airlines flight has tested positive for the highly contagious disease.
After arriving at Terminal 4, the patient traveled on a shuttle bus to Philadelphia where they visited two clinics and were eventually diagnosed.
Anyone who was on the shuttle bus on February 25 between 9.30pm and 3.15am is being urged to get tested for the disease.
People who were also at a clinic in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, on February 26 from 11.45am to 2.15pm, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia King of Prussia campus, from 12.52am to 3.02pm, are also being advised to get tested.
Officials are now working to trace patients who may have crossed paths with the child, who is a US national but had not been vaccinated.
It comes after a passenger at LAX who arrived on a Korean Air flight from Seoul also tested positive for measles on February 19.
In the background, a major measles outbreak in Texas has sickened at least 173 people and reportedly led to two deaths, marking the first US deaths from the disease in a decade.
The child traveled on a shuttle bus from JFK international airport’s terminal 4
Longtime vaccine skeptic and new health chief Robert F Kennedy Jr has urged people to get vaccinated.
Experts warn that falling vaccination rates have left the US more vulnerable to outbreaks of the disease.
Measles is transmitted via direct contact with infectious droplets released into the air by patients when they cough, sneeze or breathe.
It is one of the most infectious diseases in the world, with a patient capable of spreading it to up to 90 percent of people nearby.
About 40 percent of patients are hospitalized in the US, while about three in 1,000 die from the disease after suffering from deadly brain swelling.
Infectious droplets can hang in the air for around two hours, with symptoms emerging within seven to 14 days of infection.
Patients develop a fever, cough, and runny nose, which then develops into a rash that starts at the hairline before spreading to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet.
There’s no cure for measles, with doctors instead using antibiotics to treat related infections and IV fluids. The vaccine is 97 percent effective at preventing an infection and is required for children attending school in some states.
The JFK scare was revealed by officials at Montgomery County health department in Pennsylvania who were notified of the infection.
In a public alert release, they said: ‘Identified individuals are in the process of being contacted and notified of potential exposure to measles and assessed for vaccination status and risk for infection.
Cold-like symptoms, such as a fever, cough and a runny or blocked nose, are usually the first signal of measles
‘People who were at any of the locations [the child visited] may have been exposed.
‘Additional details regarding possible exposure during and after air travel will be provided as soon as they become available.’
The clinic in Pennsylvania the child visited was True North Pediatrics Associates of Plymouth.
It marks the first measles case recorded in Pennsylvania this year, with four cases recorded in 2024.
Latest statistics show that about 94.6 percent of children entering kindergarten in the state had received the measles vaccine last year, just below the minimum threshold of 95 percent that scientists say is needed to prevent an outbreak.
Nationwide, about 92.7 percent of children entering kindergarten have received the measles vaccine.
