The person went to SF on the train, stayed there for 32 minutes and then came back in the same train car. Why would you go to SF and not even get off the train? Does measles cause behavior & judgement problems?

I had measles as a child, both the 3-day and 7-day varieties. Am I immune or do I need a vaccine?

Why did he get off the train and get back on? Lots of reasons. Sick, had an emergency, had to meet someone briefly, a store was closed,

Why do people post such dumb comments ?

@Measly

If you're concerned, you can ask your doctor to check your "antibody titer" which is used as a metric of how strongly your immune system will fight off the disease if you're exposed. The results will help indicate whether you would benefit from a booster vaccine.

In fact, anyone who hasn't received a vaccine in the relatively recent past may benefit from this same screen, just to know how well the immunity is holding up. Some folks don't form antibodies as readily as others and need more boosters than average to get full protection. Others (rarely) have immune systems that refuse to form lasting antibodies at all, making the person vulnerable to infection regardless of immunization. These folks would need to treat exposures to the disease as if they never received the vaccine in the first place, and that can be very important information to have.

The exposure period lasts longer that the actual time the person is in a particular location. So he may have been on the train for a short time, but the exposure was long enough for the train to reach the end of the line and start going back. I kind of don't think that he rode the train to SF and then almost immediately got on a train going back, as stated by the article. Anyone else want to pipe in?

@ Measly- If you've had the measles you're immune for life. You don't need a vaccine. That's one of the wonderful advantages of getting the measles as a child- it's a benign disease in childhood but dangerous for adults and babies and as an immune adult woman you pass the (temporary) immunity on to your baby. Voila- an active case of childhood measles protects the vulnerable. Mother Nature is amazing isn't she?

Measles is not benign in childhood. Kids under five are most likely to have severe complications like pneumonia or encephalitis. 1-2 kids out of 1000 who get the measles will die. Getting measles isn’t an ironclad guarantee that you’re immune for life. You’re far less likely to get it if exposed again, but there’s still a chance.

If you look at the full report of locations visited you can see that this person spent the day in SF:
Web Link

The problem is that measles is very contagious so anyone who traveled back in the same car was probably exposed. In fact, anyone who traveled in that car anytime afterwards for a day or so was probably exposed!

@ Not Benign - I don't know where you're getting your stats (if it's the CDC they have an administrative revolving door between themselves and Big Pharma so they regularly disseminate propaganda in efforts to preserve big pharma vaccine revenue) but you couldn't be further from the truth. Death from measles in healthy, first world kids is extremely rare (NOWHERE near 1-2/1000!) and kids are more likely to get encephalitis from the vaccine than from the measles (check out the stats from the vaccine injury court). Pneumonia is possible (but also uncommon) as a complication of the measles but it's also possible as a complication of the common cold and many other common viruses. I grew up in the pre-vaccine era and I and every child I knew had the measles. You're sick for a week then back to school. Done. And then you don't have to worry about getting it as an adult and you protect your babies. Now adults and babies are at risk.