Health scare at Disney: Officials warn of a possible measles outbreak linked to the Disney On Ice show in Ohio

Ohio health officials last week issued a warning to attendees of a Disney on Ice show in Cincinnati that they may have been exposed to measles.

The Cincinnati Health Department reported that a person with measles attended the March 8 show at the Heritage Bank Center, which seats more than 17,000 people.

People at the show or who were in the building until two hours after 7 p.m. should remain vigilant for symptoms of infection — high fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes and rash that begins 3 to 5 days after the onset of other symptoms.

The United States appears to be on the path to a potential measles crisis, with the number of cases in the first two months of 2024 nearly exceeding all of last year.

The Ohio case follows two cases confirmed at a migrant shelter in Chicago

In the US, a total of 45 cases of measles were recorded in 17 states in the first two months of 2024, CDC data shows, nearly matching the total of 58 infections recorded in all of 2023.

Florida is a hotspot with at least 10 infections linked to Manatee Bay Elementary School in South Florida.

Ohio has reported four cases of measles so far this year. One of the counties where a case was reported, Montgomery County, did the first measles infection since 2005.

And it comes on the heels of the confirmation of a second case of measles at a migrant shelter in Chicago, marking the first cases in the state in the past five years and highlighting the public health danger posed by overcrowded migrant housing.

At the same time, vaccination rates against the virus dropped in the 2022-2023 school year to 93.1 percent for kindergarteners, the latest available rate — below the estimated 95 percent needed to stop the spread of the virus.

Measles is highly contagious and easily preventable.

Florida is a hotspot with at least 10 infections linked to Manatee Bay Elementary School in South Florida

Dr. Julia Rosebush from the University of Chicago said: ‘For individuals who have not been immunized and have never been exposed to the virus, the chance of contracting measles is 90 percent if there is close contact.

‘Patients with a measles infection are contagious from four days before the rash appears until four days after the rash appears.’

It was declared eliminated in 2000 – meaning there has been no continuous transmission of disease for more than a year – from the US. This was due to a highly effective vaccination program of administering the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

But the rise of the anti-vax movement set the US back about 24 years.

Typically, when a large enough population is vaccinated, transmission of the virus can become low enough that overall herd immunity protects someone who cannot be vaccinated and is therefore vulnerable to serious infection.

For example, children undergoing cancer treatment are at high risk but may not receive the full benefits of a vaccine.

Symptoms of the virus usually appear about a week after exposure to it. They start with a runny nose, watery eyes and fever. This can quickly turn into a rash on the body.

Other symptoms may include sore throat, white patches in your mouth, muscle pain and sensitivity to light.

Measles can be serious and life-threatening. In fact, about 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the US who get measles are hospitalized.

A person may develop pneumonia and encephalitis, or a condition in which the brain becomes so inflamed that it swells in size

Deaths due to neurological or respiratory complications of measles occur in the US one to three in a thousand cases.