The Union County Health Department is informing community members of a potential exposure to measles.
Those who are not vaccinated or have another known immunity who were at Meijer on Coleman’s Crossing Boulevard in Marysville on Dec. 23 from 9 a.m. to noon or Dec. 26from 2-5 p.m. should watch for signs and symptoms of measles. Those who develop symptoms should call their healthcare provider.
UCHD officials noted that it can take up to 21 days to develop symptoms from the time of exposure.
UCHD Epidemiologist Mary Salimbene Merriman has previously said symptoms of measles include a general feeling of illness, fever, cough, runny nose and red or watery eyes, which later progress to tiny white spots in the infected person’s mouth and a rash of red spots that migrate from the hairline down the rest of the body.
Health department officials are closely monitoring the disease, as central Ohio is experiencing the fourth largest outbreak in the U.S. in the past two decades.
UCHD reported a confirmed case of measles in a Union County resident on Dec. 21. Merriman described the case as “pediatric,” noting that the majority of the central Ohio outbreak cases are in children between the ages of 1 and 5 years old.
The confirmed case was the first in Union County in more than 20 years.