Possible measles exposure at Calgary airport earlier this month: AHS

Another potential measles exposure connected to Calgary’s airport has Alberta Health Services (AHS) out with a warning.

The health agency says a person who travelled to Calgary International Airport on a flight from Toronto earlier this month may have been contagious at the time.

The person was also in public on multiple occasions in Taber, a southern Alberta town around 50 kilometres east of Lethbridge.

AHS says anyone who was in the following locations during the following dates and times may have been exposed:

• March 8 – Flair Airlines flight F8629 from Toronto Pearson International Airport to Calgary International Airport (9:12 p.m. ET to 11:57 p.m. MST)
• March 8-9 – Calgary International Airport and the airport’s Budget Car and Truck Rental (11:55 p.m. to 2 a.m.)
• March 11 – Taber Health Centre Emergency Dept. (5:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.)
• March 11 – Taber Shoppers Drug Mart (6:15 p.m. to 9 p.m.)
• March 12-13 – Taber Health Emergency Dept. (10:15 p.m. to 10:50 a.m.)

Anyone who attended the locations during the specified times, was born in or after 1970, and has less than two doses of the measles vaccine, is being urged to monitor for symptoms.

Measles symptoms include:

• Fever of 38.3 C or higher.
• Cough, runny nose, and/or red eyes.
• A red blotchy rash that appears three to seven days after fever starts, which begins behind the ears and on the face and spreads down the body to the arms and legs.

If anyone feels any of these symptoms developing, AHS says to stay home and call Health Link at 811 before visiting any healthcare facility or provider, including a family physician clinic or pharmacy.

While people born in or since 1970 who have received fewer than two doses of measles-containing vaccine are susceptible to infection, those who have received fewer than two doses of measles-containing vaccine and are pregnant, under one year of age, are adults and/or have a weakened immune system are at most risk of complications from measles.

AHS warned of another measles case in the Calgary-area over the weekend that visited several places in Airdrie from March 8-12.

More information, including on registering for a vaccine, can be found online here.