Urgent warning as Newark airport is hit by world’s most contagious disease with untold number infected

By LUKE ANDREWS SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: 14:32 BST, 16 May 2025 | Updated: 14:33 BST, 16 May 2025

Health officials are sounding the alarm over a potential measles outbreak at Newark Liberty International Airport.

An infected individual traveled through the airport’s Terminal B — used by United, JetBlue and international airlines, potentially exposing hundreds to the world’s most infectious disease.

Anyone who was at the airport, which serves 40,000 passengers a day, on Monday this week from 12.30 to 4pm may have been exposed to the disease.

It was not clear whether the individual was vaccinated.

The patient was also a non-New Jersey resident who had visited the state while infectious.

It is just the latest woe for the airport, one of the three serving New York City, amid concerns over its air traffic control.

Last week, its control tower went dark for 90 seconds, prompting workers to take trauma leave as chaos ensued at the travel hub.

The case also marks at least the second time a measles infected patient has passed through Newark’s gates, after another patient also visited in early April.

An alert over a measles patient who traveled through Newark Liberty International Airport has been released

That patient had been to Newark airport’s Terminal A, and then traveled out of the airport to a Starbucks, Marriot hotel, Irish pub and medical center.

It is not thought that they passed on the disease to anyone else in the state.

In the latest exposure, officials have warned people to watch for symptoms until June 2 to ensure they are not infected. 

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Measles is the most infectious disease in the world, with a patient able to infect nine out of ten unvaccinated people that are exposed.

It spreads via airborne droplets released in coughs and sneezes, which can hang in the air for up to two hours after a patient passes. 

It is particularly dangerous to young children, with the CDC saying one in 20 unvaccinated children who are infected develop pneumonia while one in 1,000 suffer from encephalitis — swelling of the brain that can cause permanent damage.

One to three in every 1,000 unvaccinated children who are infected die from the disease.

New Jersey has recorded three cases of measles so far this year, with all three being in the same household.

There is renewed emphasis on measles this year amid a major outbreak in West Texas that is the country’s largest in two decades.

A total of 717 people have been sickened by the outbreak in Texas alone this year, with officials updating case tallies every Tuesday and Friday.

And the US has now crossed a grim milestone nationwide, with more than 1,000 measles cases being recorded — only the second time this threshold has been crossed since the disease was declared eradicated in 2000.

Two young girls, aged six and eight years, have also died from the disease.

Officials fear that if the measles outbreak does not slow soon, it could cost the country its measles elimination status. 

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Urgent warning as Newark airport is hit by world’s most contagious disease with untold number infected

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