The Happiest Place on Earth played host last month to some now very sick people. Nine confirmed cases of measles have been linked to mid-December visits to Disneyland or Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, Calif., state health officials said Wednesday.
The California Department of Health confirmed that seven of the cases live in California. The other two are in Utah. Three more California residents are also suspected of having the highly infectious — and preventable — disease.
The confirmed cases all visited Disneyland or California Adventure Park between Dec. 15 and 20 last year. Health officials have not yet determined the source of the infection and are still investigating.
The confirmed California cases live in Alameda, Orange, Pasadena, Riverside and San Diego counties, according to NBC Los Angeles. They range in age from 8 months to 21 years. All but one of the California cases were of people not vaccinated for measles, two of whom were too young for the shots. Children typically receive two doses of the MMR shot: the first at 12 through 15 months, and the second dose between 4 and 6 years of age. MMR vaccinations protect against measles, mumps and rubella. One of the California cases had been fully vaccinated against the highly infectious, airborne disease.
According to the health department, measles are contagious for nine days. Signs of the infection start with a fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes. Within a few days, a red rash appears on the face and spreads across the rest of the body.
For more information about measles, consult websites for the California Department of Public Health's website or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If you have any of these symptoms and visited the parks on any of those days, health officials are asking to be contacted as the investigation continues.
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