Pasadena Family Upset After 4-Month-Old Contracts Measles
PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — A Pasadena family is upset after their 4-month-old got measles and worry he may have exposed others.
More than a week ago, Ariel Loop noticed something was wrong when she couldn't get her baby boy Mobius to bed for the night.
"And then the next morning when he woke up, he was super hot and he had the bumps on his chest and the back of his head," she recalls.
Loop, a registered nurse, tells CBS2's Kristine Lazar that by the next day, the rash had gotten worse.
She feared it was measles.
She and her husband Christopher called an emergency room and warned them that they were coming in.
"They brought us in through the back directly into a negative-pressure room," she said.
Doctors did a blood test and sent the Loops home with orders to stay home until the results came back.
Doctors warned them to watch for pneumonia, a side effect of measles.
During that time, Mobius got worse.
"Every time he'd breathe, his whole chest and body would just like rattle," she said.
Four days later, the test revealed Mobius had measles.
The Loops believe he contracted it at Disneyland. They went in mid-January, a full month after the initial outbreak but before it was revealed the second wave of people had contracted it there.
"You have to live your life, and you can't live it in fear," said Christopher Loop, the child's father.
Mobius is fully vaccinated but the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine isn't given until the age of 1.
A family friend posted the Loops story on Facebook, urging parents to vaccinate. That post has since gone viral having been shared more than 2,000 times.
"Breastfeeding or formula? Or cloth versus paper? This isn't a very personal choice. When you're making this choice, you are putting others at risk," he said.
The health department told the Loops that Mobius was contagious for four full days before his rash appeared. The Loops will now have to go through and compile a list of all the places he went and all the people he saw.
"So, we were going out and we exposed hundreds of other people easily," she said.
The Loops have been quarantined with Mobius for eight days. As of Monday morning, the health department lifted the quarantine. Mobius has made a full recovery, and the Loops hope his story will save loves.
"It gives it a face, you know, and he's that face," he said.
