COLUMBUS, Ohio — As of Monday, 56 cases of measles were tied to a central Ohio outbreak, according to Columbus Public Health.
While most cases are for children under the age of 5, doctors warn measles can be serious for adults too.
“Measles is a miserable disease,” said Dr. Matthew Exline, director of critical care at OSU Wexner Medical Center. “If you get it, after you turn about 20, you're in a much higher risk of developing complications.”
He explained those serious complications include brain inflammation that can result in hospitalization and lifelong brain damage or pneumonia which can also lead to hospitalization.
“You can get a lot of disorders to your immune system that can have ramifications for years after you get the disease,” he said.
Because measles is highly contagious, doctors are urging people to get the MMR vaccine and pay attention to places of exposure.
There are a total of 4 places where people were exposed to measles in the Columbus area since last month.
The Meijer grocery store on Sawmill road, a church on Cleveland Avenue, the Polaris Mall, and now the Dollar Tree store on Westerville Road.
People were also exposed in northeast Ohio, according to Richland County Public Health, at the Richland Mall on Nov. 28.
If you were there from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., just like with the other locations and times, you're asked to watch for symptoms and call your doctor. The Richland County Health Department confirmed this was an exposure and there are no confirmed cases of anyone living in Richland County right now.
“One thing we're not prepared for, for those of us who have not ever really lived through an era when measles was spread widely, is it is so much more infectious than any other virus we're familiar with,” Dr. Exline said.
Columbus Public Health said the CDC will remain here for at least the next week helping the measles outbreak investigation.
Two of the 56 cases are those who are partially vaccinated, meaning the patient is just old enough for one dose or only received the shot once. The other 54 cases are all children who are unvaccinated.