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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:20 p.m., Thursday, February 14, 2008

Pro Bowl-bound were on flight with baby with measles

Associated Press

HONOLULU — Many of the passengers who flew aboard last weekend's Hawaiian Airlines flight from San Diego along with a measles-infected infant have told the state Health Department they were visiting Hawai'i for the Pro Bowl, officials said Thursday.

But there's no chance anyone at the football game was exposed to measles from the passengers.

That's because anyone who contracted measles from the 10-month old baby wouldn't have been contagious so soon after the flight. The all-star NFL game was played Sunday, one day after the flight.

Patients are only contagious starting one to two days before they start showing measles symptoms. And those who have contracted measles don't start showing symptoms until at least one week after exposure.

In the case of the Hawaiian Airlines flight, those infected would not start showing symptoms until this weekend.

The state Department of Health, meanwhile, said it's still attempting to contact those on board to warn them they may have been exposed the disease.

So far it has reached 196 of the 242 passengers, or 81 percent of those on board.

Dr. Sarah Park, of the Health Department's disease outbreak and control division, said officials left messages for 30 others, but some of the remainder don't appear to have answering machines.

She says officials are also having trouble reaching some passengers who apparently provided incorrect phone numbers.