ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. (First Alert 4) – The St. Louis County Department of Public Health announced Thursday the first case of measles the county has seen in 20 years. <\/p>\n
According to the department, the county resident is fully vaccinated. The resident had reportedly boarded Chicago-bound Train 318 on Aug. 27. That train, officials say, was found to have a person with a confirmed measles case who had boarded in Sedalia, Missouri. <\/p>\n
The Department of Health says they are working on identifying people who may have been exposed and are providing those people with guidance about quarantine or isolation requirements. <\/p>\n
\u201cMeasles is one of the most contagious diseases we see, which is why identifying potential exposures quickly is so important as is abiding by isolation and quarantine requests by the health department,\u201d Dr. Kanika Cunningham, Director of the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health, said in a press release. \u201cOur public health team is actively investigating this case and working with our state and local partners to identify anyone who may have been exposed. We encourage residents not to panic, but to be aware of the symptoms, review their vaccination status and contact their health care provider if they develop symptoms consistent with measles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Measles is spread through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or breathes, the department said. <\/p>\n
The department encouraged people to ensure their children are up to date on their vaccinations. <\/p>\n
\u201cA vaccine prevents you from becoming ill and passing a potentially deadly virus to a close family member, friend, or neighbor,\u201d said County Executive Dr. Sam Page. \u201cWe encourage families to make sure their children are up to date on their recommended vaccinations and for adults to talk with their doctors if they have questions about their immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Measles symptoms start seven to 14 days after exposure, but can show up as late as 21 days from exposure. <\/p>\n
The St. Louis County Department of Health says early symptoms can be:<\/p>\n
\u2022 High fever<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cough<\/p>\n
\u2022 Runny nose<\/p>\n
\u2022 Red or watery eyes<\/p>\n
Koplik spots, which are small white spots that may appear inside the mouth, can show up two to three days after symptoms begin, the department said. A measles rash usually develops three to five days after symptoms first appear.<\/p>\n
The Department of Health encourages anyone who believes they may have been exposed to measles to contact their health care provider for guidance, especially if they have not been vaccinated or are unsure of their vaccination status. <\/p>\n
Anyone experiencing measles symptoms is asked to call their healthcare provider before going into a medical office, urgent care or emergency room. The Department of Health says calling ahead allows the healthcare providers to take precautions to prevent the potential spread of measles to other patients and staff. <\/p>\n
The St. Louis County Department of Health can be contacted at 314-615-1630 during regular business hours or 314-615-7677 after business hours.<\/p>\n
correction: A previous version of this story contained incorrect information about the resident diagnosed with measles. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KMOV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. (First Alert 4) – The St. Louis County Department of Public Health announced Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[359741,97,252,253,171112,359743,9572,359742,168414,13484,359740,26494,14847,359744],"class_list":["post-851477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-chicago-bound-train","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ill","tag-lincoln-service","tag-measles","tag-riverrunner","tag-sick","tag-st-louis-county","tag-st-louis-county-department-of-public-health","tag-symptoms","tag-train","tag-train-318"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}