Somerville father, children isolate after measles exposure at Logan

Three members of a Somerville family are isolating after being exposed to measles at Logan airport, according to officials. 

The Boston Public Health Commission and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health first warned the public last week that a person with measles flew from Fort Lauderdale to Logan. 

That infected passenger traveled on JetBlue Flight 470, and landed at Logan just after midnight on April 14. They left the airport in a privately owned vehicle and headed out of Massachusetts, public health officials said. Anyone that was in Terminal C between midnight and 2:30 a.m. on April 14 may have been exposed to measles. 

Somerville resident Daniel Engel posted in a community Facebook group last week, saying that his family was “impacted by the measles-exposure on flight 470.” Engel said that he was quarantining with two children under the age of 3 who were not yet old enough to be fully vaccinated. Engel asked if any neighbors had toy construction vehicles that he could borrow for 10 days. 

Public health officials say that unvaccinated individuals who have been exposed to measles need to avoid public spaces and monitor for symptoms for 21 days after exposure. 

A spokesperson for the MDPH confirmed that a Somerville family was isolating after potential measles exposure. 

Engel told The Boston Globe earlier this week that he and his children were showing symptoms. One child is 2 years old and the other is 11 months old. Engel is fully vaccinated, while his 2-year-old has received one shot, and his 11-month-old has not received any. Engel’s wife was on a trip for work to Ohio when her husband and children were traveling back to Massachusetts from Florida, and she arrived in Boston after they had already returned. 

Children need two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. The first dose is usually administered when a child is between 12 and 15 months of age. The second dose is typically administered when a child is between the ages of 4 and 6 years old. 

Infants between 6 and 11 months of age can get a dose before traveling. Engel said that he did not get his son vaccinated before the Florida trip because he thought a measles exposure was unlikely. 

“This is actually an argument for why MMR should be standard at six months, which is when you technically become eligible for travel,” he told the Globe.

Measles symptoms appear between 7 and 14 days after contact with the virus. The first symptoms are flu-like, such as a cough, high fever, runny nose, and red or watery eyes. A red rash then spreads from the face to the rest of the body.

Measles is highly contagious, and can easily spread when a person with the virus coughs or sneezes. The virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace, and can also linger on surfaces. An infected person can spread measles to others beginning four days before the rash appears, and through the fourth day after the rash appears, according to the CDC. 

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. However, 2025 saw more measles cases in America than any year since 1991, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Cases are continuing to increase at worrying levels in 2026. 

About 93% of confirmed measles cases last year were among people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.

“It was shock, anger, fear, frustration, annoyance, and questioning why anybody in their right mind would opt to not have their measles vaccine in today’s world,” Engel told the Globe of his reaction to the measles exposure.