Infectious Diseases Brought To You By The Letter M

After riding out the meningitis wave of last week, prepare yourselves for yet another University Health Advisory. Yesterday was meningitis; today is measles. Never has the letter M been so unfriendly to innocent university students. E-mail to follow after the jump!

And it says:

This advisory is to inform the Penn community that a Wharton graduate student has been diagnosed with measles.  The student is resting at home under the care of physicians.

The vast majority of community members are not at risk of infection, as the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine is required for student enrollment at Penn, and most faculty and staff members are also not at risk of infection, as described below.  Close contacts of the infected student who may need preventative medication are already being notified directly. Symptoms of measles include rash, high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes.  If you are a graduate, undergraduate, or professional student exhibiting these symptoms, please seek treatment at the Student Health Service at 3535 Market Street.

If you are a faculty or staff member exhibiting these symptoms, please seek treatment at the Occupational Medicine Clinic, located on the ground floor of the Silverstein Pavilion of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at 3400 Spruce Street.

According to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, you do not need a new measles or MMR vaccine if you are not at high risk of measles exposure and have had two measles or MMR immunizations, the first after age 15 months, the second after age 5 and no less than one month after the first immunization.  These are the standard immunizations for American schoolchildren.

You generally do not need a new measles or MMR vaccine if you: •        have had blood tests that show you are immune to measles, mumps, and rubella; •        have had two doses of measles or MMR vaccine at the appropriate ages (see above); •        are a man born before 1957; •        are a woman born before 1957 who is sure she is not having more children, has already had rubella vaccine, or has had a positive rubella test.

Officials from the University of Pennsylvania, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and the City of Philadelphia are closely monitoring this situation and will update the Penn community on the Student Health Service website ( http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/shs/health_advisory_measles.php ) if there are any new public health risks entailed by this student’s condition.