Editor’s Note: The video in the above player is from a previous report.
Two Chicago hotels are on the Illinois Department of Public Health’s list places where people may have been exposed to measles.
The department is warning anyone without a measles vaccination who was at the locations on the list and the specified times to call their health care provider within the specified window of time to receive a post-exposure medication as 23 cases of measles have already been confirmed this year.
IDPH lists two Chicago hotels alongside Chicago Union Station and a restaurant in Edwardsville as exposure locations on its website, along with the date of exposure and a window that people who may have been exposed should monitor for symptoms.
Springhill Suites, a Mariott hotel located at 2357 S. Wentworth Ave., and Swissotel Chicago, located at 323 E. Wacker Dr., are both on the list, however, the symptom monitoring window closed for the Swissotel exposure on Sept. 18.
Sixteen of the cases confirmed this year in Illinois were from an outbreak in Douglas and Moultrie counties in the eastern part of the state that involved people who are either unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination history, IDPH said. There were also cases that were not related to an outbreak in Kane and Madison counties.
“Measles is a highly contagious disease that can easily be spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or through direct contact with nose or throat secretions from an infected individual. Although measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, it has experienced a resurgence in recent years due to a drop in national immunization rates,” IDPH said in a press release.