The Humboldt County Health Department has announced that a 22-year-old woman who recently traveled abroad has been diagnosed with measles. It is the first case of the disease seen in the county in more than a decade.

The woman is currently recovering, but may possibly have infected others. Officials are asking anyone who ate at China Buffet on May 20 between the hours of 1 and 4 pm, or at Hometown Buffet on May 23 (after 5 p.m.) or May 24 (10:45 a.m.-2 p.m.), to watch closely for symptoms.

There is a press conference currently underway at the health department. We will update this as the conference goes on.

UPDATE, 12:36 p.m.: Oh yeah: You might want to check a previous post — “Measles in Mendocino; How to Get Vaccinated” — as well.

UPDATE 12:21 p.m.: Press conference over. Find further materials from the Health Department, including symptoms and vaccination options, here.

UPDATE 12:18 p.m.: There was a long span between the woman becoming symptomatic and a definitive diagnosis being made. The doctor who treated the patient tested her several times before a positive diagnosis was made; the first several were indeterminate. Nevertheless, the patient stayed in quarantine at her home throughout the period of her illness — May 23 to the present. She is no longer infectious. 

UPDATE 12:15 p.m.: “We’re relatively lucky in Humboldt County that there are two specific cases and two specific times” where the infected person had appeared in public before contacting a medical professional.

UPDATE 12:11 p.m.: The point that county health wants to emphasize, here, is that if people do suspect that they have symptoms of the disease then those people should stay at home and contact a doctor by telephone.

UPDATE 12:06 p.m.: To parents skeptical of vaccines, especially MMR, Dr. Ann Lindsay says: “The research underlying the link between the vaccine and autism has been uncovered as a fraud.” Eighty-one percent of Humboldt County kindergarteners are vaccinated.

UPDATE 12:05 p.m.: If you were at one of those venues, you should stay vigilant for symptoms until June 10 (China Buffet) or June 14 (Home Depot Hometown Buffet). The infected woman works at Hometown Buffet, and had picked up the disease in China. She came back from her trip on June May 19.