After a recent measles outbreak, health officials are warning that we're already on pace to have more cases than last year.

"The reason we're so concerned about measles is because you can be hospitalized,” Sedgwick County Health Protection Director, Chris Steward said.

Health officials say more than 100 people from 21 states, including Kansas, have reported contracting the rare virus this year.

"Most of the cases in the United States are travel related,” Steward said.

Measles is a contagious virus that spreads through the air through coughing and sneezing. The virus can be in your body for up to 4 days before the rash develops.

The Sedgwick County Health Department says while they haven't had any confirmed measles cases this year, they said they had one in 2017 but none the two years before that.

The Kansas Department of Health reports the north eastern part of the state had 22 cases this spring from when a traveler brought the virus back from Asia.

"In Johnson County it was a child who was too young to be vaccinated and they came back and were able to affect other people who were unvaccinated,” Steward said.

Symptoms such as high fever, rash all over the body, stuffy nose and reddened eyes typically disappear without treatment within two or three weeks. But 1 in 4 people who are infected end up in the hospital.

Children can get the measles vaccination as young as one-year-old. Adults born before 1957 are considered to be immune to the disease.

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Health officials say more than 100 people from 21 states, including Kansas, have reported contracting the measles this year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports on its website that from January 1 to July 14, 107 people have were reported to have measles. The CDC didn't say how many of those cases were in Kansas.

But the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports in mid spring, the state had 22 cases from an outbreak that started after a traveler brought the virus back from Asia. It spread mostly through infants too young to be vaccinated at a day care in Johnson County.

Other affected states include Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, along with the District of Colombia

There were 118 reported measles cases in all of 2017 and only 86 the year before that. In 2015, 188 people contracted measles.

Measles is a respiratory disease caused by a virus. Measles is highly contagious and is spread through the air by breathing, coughing, or sneezing. The signs and symptoms of measles typically begin one to two weeks after someone is exposed to an infected person. Symptoms include:

  • Fever
  • Blotchy rash on the skin, which spreads from the head to the trunk then to the lower extremities (measles can be spread to others from four days before to four days after the rash appears)
  • Cough
  • Runny nose
  • Red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis)
  • Feeling run down, achy
  • Tiny white spots with bluish-white centers found inside the mouth (Koplik spots)