An AFP reader with stage 4 colorectal cancer who was exposed to the measles virus after being admitted to the emergency department at UVA Health University Medical Center last week will be able to continue her chemotherapy treatments.
“As a follow-up, I’ll say after a lot of chaos and back and forth with the doctor’s office, I’m now scheduled for infusions at the Pantops location in a negative air pressure room,” the reader wrote to us, updating us on the story that we published on Thursday about her ordeal, which originally had doctors telling her that she could not be seen for 28 days due to the exposure.
The new arrangement is still “very inconvenient,” the reader wrote to us in her follow-up email, “and still nobody from UVA has explained why I cannot be seen by my provider in person for 28 days, when the VDH told me 21 days if I develop measles symptoms. It’s better than no treatment at all.”
ICYMI
The background to the story is that a week ago, on May 22, the woman developed a high fever and chills, and called her cancer specialist for advice, and was told to go to the emergency department at UVA.
“I was admitted to UVA ED on the 22nd, diagnosed with pneumonia, but they had no beds available, so I was stuck there sharing the bathroom down the hall with all other patients until nearly midnight on the 23rd, in spite of being doubly immunocompromised. That exposed me to the measles case,” the woman wrote.
After being discharged, she got a call from UVA Health the next day “telling me I had to come back for an infusion of IVIG to protect me from contracting the measles. They told me the infusion would last about an hour, and they’d keep me for an hour for observation, and that I should come in ASAP.”
Our reader did as directed, got the IVIG shot, and then followed up with her UVA Health Augusta doctor regarding her next scheduled chemotherapy infusion.
That’s when she got word that she can’t be seen for 28 days due to the measles exposure.
We reported last week that a Charlottesville-area teenager who recently travelled internationally had officially been confirmed as the second measles case of the year in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
ICYMI
The patient, a teenager between the ages of 13 and 17, recently travelled internationally, per the VDH report, which noted that health officials were coordinating efforts to identify anyone who might have been exposed.
A Virginia Department of Health spokesperson confirmed to us today that people considered immune – with a history of measles vaccination or birth before 1957) – who have been exposed to the measles virus are asked to self-monitor for measles symptoms for 21 days from the date of exposure, “but they do not need avoid public spaces or stay home from work or school.”
ICYMI
- Virginia Department of Health tracing potential exposure to measles through child
- Blue Ridge Poison Center: Too much vitamin A, touted as a measles cure, can kill you
- Exposed to measles? Maybe, if you’ve travelled through NOVA airports, Washington area metro
- Department of Health: Confirmed case of measles in Virginia; two dead nationwide due to outbreak
Eric Swensen, the public information officer at UVA Health, got back in touch with us today to tell us that the medical team there has “finalized treatment protocols for patients being quarantined due to exposure to the measles but who need cancer therapy or infusion therapy.”
“We are continuing care for these patients as directed by their care providers. This is primarily occurring at UVA Health Care Pantops, where we have the resources and spaces to most safely care for them,” Swensen said.
Share
Chris Graham
