A third case of measles in Connecticut has been confirmed and is linked to the ongoing outbreak in New York City.
Officials at the state Department of Public Health announced Friday that an adult from New Haven County likely contracted measles after getting exposed during a visit to Brooklyn in the last week of March.
This case is not linked to two previous cases of measles in Connecticut that were reported in January, officials said in a news release.
“We are monitoring and investigating this case very closely, including working with our local health departments to follow up with any individuals that may have been exposed to measles,” Commissioner Renée D. Coleman-Mitchell said in a statement.
The New Haven County adult had a rash starting April 11. Public health department officials identified an infectious period between April 7 and 12, and said “the case was isolated as of today.”
Since the beginning of the year through April 4, there have been 465 individual cases of measles in 19 states.
Health officials said the best thing people can do to protect themselves from measles—a highly contagious disease—is to get vaccinated. They said it was important to do so, even when Connecticut’s high vaccination rates lower the risk of a widespread measles outbreak here.
