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 The rider represents the first case of measles confirmed by Contra
Costa County health officials during an outbreak of the disease that
began in late December. The infected person also spent time at a San
Francisco restaurant and bar on the evening of Feb. 4.
"Although the risk of contracting measles by being exposed on BART
is low, Bay Area residents should be aware of the situation," the
county public health department said in a statement.
The California Department of Public Health said on Wednesday that
110 cases of measles had been confirmed in California, many of them
linked to the outbreak that authorities believe began when an
infected person from out of the country visited Disneyland in late
December.
More than three dozen more cases have been documented in other U.S.
states and in Mexico. Most people recover from measles within a few
weeks, although it can be fatal in some cases.
In the Bay Area case, the infected person was known to have traveled
between the Lafayette station in the East Bay and the Montgomery
station in San Francisco during the morning and evening rush-hour
commutes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week, BART
spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.
That ride is 35 minutes long, but health officials said the highly
infectious, airborne virus could have remained in the air for up to
two hours. Because BART cars circulate throughout the Bay area, tens
of thousands of people could have potentially been exposed, Trost
said.
The infected rider, who was not identified by name, age or gender,
also spent time at the E&O Kitchen and Bar in San Francisco on
Wednesday evening, potentially exposing others who were in the
restaurant between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., health officials said.
Public health officials said they were tracing the movements of the
person, who is recovering and not hospitalized, and notifying others
known to have had close contact.
Authorities sought to downplay the risk to commuters or diners,
however, saying that most people had been inoculated for the
disease, but urged anyone who had not to get vaccinated.
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"We do know that measles has been circulating through the Bay Area.
This person doesn't know where they were exposed," said Erika
Jenssen, Contra Costa County's communicable disease programs chief.
Among the more than three dozen cases reported outside of California
are 10 in Cook County, Illinois, nine of them associated with a
daycare center in the city of Palatine.
The measles outbreak has renewed a debate over the so-called
anti-vaccination movement, in which fears about potential side
effects of vaccines, fueled by now-debunked research suggesting a
link to autism, have prompted a small minority of parents to refuse
inoculations for their children.
Some parents also opt not to have their children vaccinated for
religious or other reasons.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 after
decades of intensive childhood vaccine efforts. But in 2014 the
country had its highest number of measles cases in 20 years.
(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Steve
Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman and
Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Mohammad Zargham, Cynthia
Osterman and Andrew Hay)
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