Measles advisory issued for Vegas restaurant, expo attendees
LAS VEGAS >> Health officials in Nevada issued a call Wednesday for an unknown number of people who ate last week at a top-name Las Vegas Strip restaurant and those who attended a weekend pet expo at a downtown convention center to check whether they’re fully immunized against measles.
Tests confirmed this week that a child and an adult have the highly communicable disease, bringing to four the number of cases reported since the beginning of the year in and around Las Vegas, the Southern Nevada Health District said.
The adult, who wasn’t fully vaccinated, works at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, the health district said.
People who dined at the restaurant after 4 p.m. between Wednesday, Feb. 4, and Saturday, Feb. 7, should review their immunization status and contact their health care provider if they are not fully immunized against measles and have not already had the disease, the district said.
The infected person, who wasn’t identified, also attended the Las Vegas Pet Expo at Cashman Center between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Feb. 7.
The health district was advising the same precautions for anyone who attended that event.
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Investigators didn’t immediately know how many people may have been exposed, district spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said.
The child who became ill had received a single dose of measles vaccine, the health district said.
The government recommends a first dose of measles vaccine for children ages 12 months to 15 months, and a second dose before kindergarten.
The four measles cases reported in Clark County were the first since 2011, district spokeswomen Stephanie Bethel said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tallied more than 120 measles cases nationwide — mostly in California. Many were linked to visits to Disneyland in December or exposure to infected people.
Health officials told Nevada lawmakers last week that a least one of the confirmed measles cases in southern Nevada was linked to Southern California. But Bethel said Wednesday that investigators don’t think the Las Vegas cases are linked to Disneyland, or to each other.
She said one case involved a strain of the virus similar to the Disneyland strain, but also commonly found in outbreaks throughout the world over the past year.
Clark County’s first confirmed measles case was reported last month and involved a vaccinated high school student.
To date, no additional cases of measles have been identified among classmates. The health district said the 21-day period of concern for developing disease in that case has ended.
A second case occurred in an unvaccinated adult who wasn’t related to the student, and the health district was contacting people who might have had contact with that person.