ATLANTA — An infant infected with measles was released from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Tuesday afternoon.
We learned today more Georgians have been exposed to measles than previously thought. Officials now say 200 people are at risk.
Of those 200 people, approximately 32 have not been vaccinated and are susceptible to exposure.
Those 32 are either getting measles shots or, if they are too young for the shot, a preventive medicine called immune globulin.
The infant came into the Emergency Room at Egleston over the weekend. Prior to that the child had flown to Atlanta from out of the country and spent days in the city before the official diagnosis.
The infected infant traveled on four flights from Kyrgyzstan in Eastern Europe to Istanbul, Turkey, Chicago, and then on to Atlanta.
The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is helping track down some of those passengers as well.
“We've obtained the flight manifests and we're working with the state health department to reach those passengers that sat in the same row as the affected infant ,as well as the two rows in front and two rows behind the affected infant,” said Tom Skinner with the CDC.
Although measles can live for up to two hours on surfaces or in airspace, the CDC says it’s only those passengers who sat in nearby rows who may be at risk, and only if they had not been already vaccinated against measles.
“Our science tells us those are the ones we need to concentrate our efforts on and that's what we're doing,” Skinner said.
Channel 2’s Erica Byfield learned that area schools and day cares are taking this concern very seriously.
The state of Georgia has immunization requirements schools and day cares must follow and the measles vaccine is on it.
The owner of a south Fulton day care told us she is very aware of the requirements.
In the entryway Priscilla Gates has posted the immunizations state guidelines on the wall. Just above that you'll find a certificate from Fulton County saying the facility has a 100 percent immunization compliance rate.
Gates said she did it by pushing parents to get their little ones shots.
As another layer of protection against any illness, she's a proponent of morning spot checks.
“If they have any spots or anything, we would take the child and isolate the child and notify the parent,” said Gates. “After they come pick them up, we notify the health department.”
We downloaded a copy of the state requirements. Measles is one of several vaccines kids enrolled in all Georgia day cares and schools must have. There are just two exceptions; medical or religious reasons.
“We are very strict on the rules,” said Dr. J. Patrick O’Neal, with the Georgia Department of Public Health.
State data shows that 98 percent of Georgia kindergarteners have been immunized.
Doctors at CHOA are treating the child with the first confirmed case of measles in the state.
Gates said she wasn't expecting any of this and it’s scary.
“All I could do is pray and say, ‘Lord don’t let it come into the daycares’ because once it hits, it spreads,” Gates said.
Byfield sent emails to more than a dozen school districts about their immunization rates.
Based on their feedback, Byfield learned that only a small number of students aren’t vaccinated, many for religious reasons.
Atlanta Public Schools told Byfield they have 100 percent compliance.
Fulton County schools provided kindergarten and 7th grade data.
There are about 7,000 kindergartners and 122 have exemptions from the immunization. There is about the same number in 7th grade, with 104 exemptions.
In Gwinnett County, 1 percent of the school population has an exemption, in Fayette County it's an eighth of a percent, and in Hall County it is five-thousandths of a percent.