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South Pasadena Woman Could Be Jailed For Refusing Measles Quarantine
A South Pasadena graduate student is refusing to follow health officials' orders to be quarantined after her sister contracted measles linked to Disneyland.
Ylsa Tellez, 26, told KABC that she feels perfectly fine, and that she doesn't think "it's necessary for me to be on house arrest." Her younger sister, 24-year-old Maura Tellez, is one of the 26 people who got the highly-contagious disease after visiting Disneyland's theme parks in Anaheim. Maura said she is getting over her illness and is no longer contagious.
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contacted Ylsa and a local health department visited her. Both asked her to get vaccinated and be quarantined. They also warned her that if she didn't follow their orders, she could get sent to jail or have a misdemeanor on her record, Ylsa said. Her mother is supporting her daughter's decision, and said "it's not nice" that they're threatening her.
Ysla said that she's going to visit a doctor to see if she needs to get a measles vaccine, and that if she starts feeling sick at all, then she would definitely stay in.
California's Department of Public Health said visitors to Disneyland and adjacent California Adventure Park may have been exposed to measles between the dates of Dec. 15 and Dec. 20.
Measles is a respiratory disease that spreads through the air through coughing and sneezing. A person who's contracted measles can be contagious up to four days before and after the rash begins to show. The symptoms for this disease include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and a rash covering the entire body, and will appear about a week to two weeks after being infected. There's no treatment for measles, but most people usually recover after a few weeks.
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