HEALTH ALERT: Measles

I haven't written about this until now because while looking at a map of where the current 100+ cases of measles have broken out, I have noticed a pattern ... One stretching from coast to coast!

We call it The Tour 

It's the most direct route from our state to the coast while hitting as many site seeing places as possible ... Well in this case I'm guessing that it started on the west coast and traveled east - since the newest cases are being reported in IL ....

The path would go:

WA

OR

CA

AZ

UT

CO

-- here it would take anyone exposed less than one day to cross over Oklahoma to TX

Patient 0 would continue on:

CO

NE

SD

MN

MI (it only takes a couple hours across the top of Wisconsin, so that would explain why no cases there, yet)

-- in MI it's less than a day to the bottom of the state to the top of IL

Patient 0 continues:

MI

PA

NY

-- I don't recall how long it takes to get from MI, through Indiana, to PA ... I'm doubting its less than an 8 hour trip ... Which means there will soon be more cases reported ...

Unless they stopped off in Amish country - since they shun "English" doctors we may never know if there is an outbreak unless a child is infected to the point of needing hospital care.

I know they are saying it started at Disney World in CA but the map does not show it that way ...

And remember that this trip can be done in only a few days time -- perhaps in less than a week -- well before a child might show such signs as the thick rash ...

Or perhaps the parents thought the rash was simply Roseola -- a normal break out amongst children which also shows as a rash on the trunk of the body but with only a slight temperature.

My oldest son had it as a child - we thought we had caught Chicken Pox early enough not to cause a huge break-out at the daycare but the doctor declared it as Roseola.

Or perhaps Patient 0 is like my brother who simply didn't break out with anything when he was younger.

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