LIHUE — With measles reported in at least five U.S. airports this holiday season, the outbreak in Samoa and more direct flights from the mainland to Lihue Airport, staff have to stay vigilant to keep disease from spreading.
That means keeping everyone in the visitor industry refreshed on how to identify and respond to communicable illnesses in passengers, something that Oahu physician James Ireland coordinates for the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
Ireland has been working with HDOT since 2000. He and his team meet every three months to consider the communicable diseases in circulation and make sure that airport personnel across the islands are up to speed on response and identification protocol.
“There’s always a ‘disease of the month’ that’s of concern,” Ireland said Thursday. “Lately, with the outbreak in Samoa and the reports from the mainland airports, it’s measles.”
The Samoa measles outbreak has been traced back to July 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and in November, Ireland’s team sent out reminders to airport personnel, including crash fire rescue staff, to be on a heightened awareness for measles.
In early December, a medical team from Hawaii flew to Samoa to help combat the contagious virus and to help with vaccinations. That’s about the same time airports in Chicago, Texas and Virginia began reporting travelers with measles.
Now, with increased media exposure of the spreading of measles, Ireland says protocols in place will help keep everyone up to date on response.
“Flight crews are trained to recognize the signs of ill passengers, and they know what to look for on all the neighbor islands,” Ireland said. “The aircrafts can radio ahead and airport fire rescue are on standby.”
This year, there were four reported cases of travel-related measles in Hawaii, including three visitors and one resident. In 2018, there were no reported cases of measles in the state. An advisory was sent to physicians in November, and healthcare providers are reminded to be vigilant, he said.
Measles cases are rising around the world, according to the Associated Press. The United States in 2019 reported its highest number of cases in 25 years, and last year protracted outbreaks caused four European countries where measles had been eliminated to lose that status, the World Health Organization reported this month.
The partnership between HDOT, the state Department of Health and CDC matured about 10 years ago because avian flu was going around, and the relationship has been “pretty robust” since then, according to Ireland.
“It all started with (figuring out) how to screen passengers for avian flu and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) when that was a concern,” Ireland said. “Now we have procedures ready for everything, so to speak.”
Ireland said the current measles outbreak isn’t quite as concerning compared to other communicable diseases that have been in circulation, like SARS, ebola or avian flu, because many in Hawaii are already vaccinated for measles.
“Hawaii has high vaccination rates with pockets of people in the counties that don’t vaccinate,” Ireland said. “With these high vaccination rates, if measles were to be introduced, most people wouldn’t get it.”
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or jelse@thegardenisland.com.
