More than 300 quarantined amid measles fears at Los Angeles universities

More than 300 students and faculty members at two Los Angeles universities have been placed under a quarantine order, after they were exposed to measles and were not able to verify they had been vaccinated or have immunity.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), said that as of Wednesday there were 119 students and eight faculty members under quarantine. More than 500 students, faculty and staff may have been exposed to the virus when a student who has been diagnosed with the virus attended classes in early April. The quarantined individuals have not shown that they are immune.

Seventy-one students and 127 staff members, meanwhile, are quarantined at California State University, Los Angeles after a possible exposure at a campus library, school officials said.

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“The Department of Public Health has determined that there is no known current risk related to measles at the library at this time,” Cal State said in a statement.

UCLA says some people could remain in quarantines for up to 48 hours before they prove immunity. A few may need to remain in quarantine for up to seven days.

“We have arranged for those who live on campus to be cared for at UCLA while they are quarantined,” UCLA chancellor Gene Block said in a statement. “Please be assured that we have the resources we need for prevention and treatment, and that we are working very closely with local public health officials on the matter.”

The quarantine comes as the number of measles cases in the US this year hit a 25-year high, despite being declared all but eliminated from the country in 2000. Colleges and universities are an area of concern for public health officials, the Los Angeles Times reported, because the current generation of college students were infants when Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced former British physician, began spreading the false idea that vaccines were linked to autism.

The so-called “Wakefield generation” has lower rates of vaccination than other age groups, the Times reported.

A small outbreak of measles is occurring in Los Angeles County involving five confirmed cases linked to overseas travel.

State health officials say the number of measles cases is up in California this year and much of the increase is linked to overseas travel.

Dr Karen Smith, director of the California Department of Public Health, says the state recorded 38 measles cases as of Thursday, versus 11 around the same time last year.

She says the state typically sees fewer than two dozen cases a year.

This year, California’s cases stretch across 11 counties and affect patients from five months to 55 years of age.

She says more than 76% of patients were not vaccinated or didn’t receive the recommended two doses of vaccine.

Fourteen of those infected had traveled overseas to countries including Philippines, Thailand, India and Ukraine.

Measles symptoms include high fever, a cough and a rash.