New Jersey now has three confirmed cases of measles, according to the state Department of Health, all linked to a child from Bergen County who recently traveled abroad. And none of the patients were vaccinated.

NJ Spotlight News spoke with Dr. Meg Fisher, a renowned pediatric infectious disease specialist in New Jersey, about the recent spread of the disease and the factors in play.

“Where we say influenza would be likely to infect one or two other people, for measles it’s 12 to 16 other people,” said Fisher, medical director at the Unterberg Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center. “If someone has measles and they’re around people who are not protected by having been immunized or having had disease, then for every one person you’ll infect another over a dozen.”

Health officials say the two newest cases in New Jersey are individuals who had close contact with the initial patient and remain under quarantine to prevent spread, which can happen quickly and easily. Measles is one of the world’s most contagious infectious diseases.

“What makes it more frightening is, it is truly airborne,” Fisher continued. “So, the virus particles travel through the air, and they stay in the air in very small droplets. They can stay in the air for up to two hours after a person has been in a room. This makes the spread of disease very likely.”

“And you can see that in Texas, where over a few weeks, over 130 people have been infected between Texas and New Mexico,” she said.

The U.S.’s first death from the disease since 2015 was recently recorded: an unvaccinated school-aged child in Texas, where measles infections have now been confirmed in more than 120 people. Experts have pointed to declining vaccination rates worldwide since the COVID-19 pandemic as a leading cause for the outbreak.

“People tended to not want to go to health care centers, which was understandable, but it means that our immunization rate among children has dropped from in the 90th percentile to way down into somewhere in the 80%,” said Fisher, a former adviser to the state Department of Health. “For measles, because it’s so contagious, you have to have 95% of people in a community immunized in order to protect everyone.”

According to Fisher, if a person has had one measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, there’s a 93% chance they’ll be protected from the virus for life. If an individual gets two doses, that rate goes up to between 97%-99% protection.

Measles symptoms can closely mirror those of other respiratory illnesses, but there are some distinctive signs for which public health experts say should be monitored.

“It starts with fever and then cough and a runny nose and red eyes,” Fisher said. “Then you get these marks inside your mouth and then the rash comes on. You have fever, cough, and red eyes for about three days before the rash comes on. It’s difficult to make that diagnosis quickly. There are lots of viruses that can give you fever, red eyes. Therefore, If you even think your child may have measles or may have been exposed, you should get in touch with people ahead of time, so that they don’t expose other people.”

The New Jersey Department of Health is warning the public the child with the initial positive measles case visited the following three health care facilities, potentially exposing others during the following dates and times:

•  2/8/2025, 12:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. PromptMD Urgent Care, 2059 Hudson Street, Fort Lee 
• 2/9/2025, 11:30 a.m. – 3:45 p.m. Englewood Hospital Emergency Department, 350 Engle Street, Englewood
• 2/9/2025, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Hackensack University Medical Center, 30 Prospect Avenue Hackensack

Anyone who visited those locations during the specified dates and times is being urged to contact their health care provider.