Traveler with measles may have exposed others at Reston locations

Key Points:

• A person with confirmed measles traveled through Reston, Virginia, on August 16, potentially exposing community members at four locations along Sunrise Valley Drive, including the Sheraton Reston Hotel and a local barber shop.
• The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) is identifying and notifying those who may have been exposed and urges anyone present at these sites on that date to confirm their vaccination status and monitor for symptoms for 21 days.
• Measles is highly contagious and preventable through two doses of the MMR vaccine, which provides lifetime protection; Virginia maintains a high vaccination rate of about 95% among kindergarteners.
• Symptoms typically appear 7 to 14 days after exposure, starting with fever, runny nose, and cough, followed by a rash spreading across the body; infected individuals are contagious from four days before to four days after the rash appears.
• Virginia has reported 179 measles cases in 2023, mostly among unvaccinated individuals, with nine hospitalizations and no deaths; a recent outbreak in Buckingham and Cumberland counties was declared over on August 19.