The University of Hartford’s state-of-the-art Hursey Center for Advanced Engineering and Health Professions served as the backdrop for a press conference that focused on an advancement in health care, as well as a frightening step backward in the eradication of a highly-contagious disease – measles – that has now appeared to Connecticut.
Gov. Ned Lamont and Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD, scheduled Thursday morning’s press conference to tout the fact that Connecticut is now one of 43 U.S. states and territories to sign onto the Nurse Licensure Compact. The agreement allows Registered Nurses (RNs) and Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) to obtain one multi-state license to practice nursing in all participating locations, and gives state employers more support to respond to nursing shortages by increasing the pool of available professionals.
The majority of reporters’ questions Thursday morning, however, focused on the announcement late Wednesday of Connecticut’s first case of measles in more than four years.
Juthani reiterated information that was released in a press release Wednesday night indicating that the individual with measles is an unvaccinated child, under the age of 10, who lives in Fairfield County. The child recently traveled internationally, and the measles symptoms appeared several days later – symptoms that “included cough, runny nose, congestion, fever, and eventually a rash starting at the head and spreading throughout their body.”
An investigation is underway, Juthani said, “identifying what contacts they might have had, where they might have gone through an infectious window” which is based on symptoms, she said. They are working with the family on contact tracing in rapid fashion, she said, and will notify anyone who may have been in contact with the child.