Adult measles case turns up in Nassau

Nassau's got a case of the measles.

An adult in the county has been diagnosed with the airborne, highly infectious disease -- and the health department is warning that other people may have been exposed.

But most people who have been vaccinated for the measles should be safe, health department spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain said Friday.

"Most people who are vaccinated are fine," she said.

To prevent spread of the disease, anyone with symptoms should call medical personnel before visiting a doctor, authorities said.

The places and dates where the disease may have been have transmitted are:

Crest Hollow Country Club, 8325 Jericho Tpke., Woodbury on May 22 from 6:30 p.m. to midnight.

A building at 99 Second Ave., Garden City Park on Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

A building at 55 Denton Ave., New Hyde Park on Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

A building at 520 Franklin Ave., Garden City the same day from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

A building at 999 Franklin Ave., Garden City on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.Citing medical privacy laws, Laurain would say only that the infected person is an adult who started showing signs of measles last weekend. She wouldn't provide the person's gender, age, occupation or hometown.

Laurain said the virus lives in the nose and throat and can be transmitted through air droplets -- sneezes, coughs and nose blowing.

"It's very contagious," she said.

There's a four-hour window after an infected person leaves an area during which the disease can live in the air and infect other people, she said.

Measles appears in two stages, beginning with symptoms such as a runny nose, a cough, a fever, and then progresses to a rash that starts on the face and spreads downward and outward, Laurain said.

Symptoms generally show 10 to 12 days after exposure but can start as soon as seven days and as long as 18 days after, she said.

Reached Friday night, Crest Hollow's sales director, Janine Dion, said the heath department told the country club late Friday about the infection and that the club would be distributing information about the disease to its entire staff.

The health department will provide immunizations to high-risk individuals, including people not immunized against measles, those with a weakened immune system, and infants younger than 1 who may have been exposed.

Officials will be providing immune globulin injections on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. at the Nassau County Department of Health, 106 Charles Lindbergh Blvd., Uniondale.