By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Health authorities have not been able to determine where a Princeton University student got measles, in a medical mystery made more puzzling since he had been inoculated.
The university said Monday that test results confirmed the student had measles, the only known case in Princeton. As of last week, he was referred to as a suspected case. He has fully recovered, although few details about him have been released to the public.
Municipal Health Officer Jeffrey C. Grosser said Monday that the student’s travel history was investigated but it turned up no leads as to where he might have contracted the disease. Mr. Grosser said authorities have ruled out that he got it on campus.
He called it “very rare” for someone who has been inoculated to get measles. The university has said “more than 99.5 percent of graduate and undergraduate students have been vaccinated.”
Mr. Grosser said there is no reason for the public to avoid going onto campus.
In the meantime, university faculty and staff continued Monday to get blood tests to determine whether they are protected against measles.
Mr. Grosser’s officer mandated that anyone born after Dec.31, 1956, show proof of being protected — either through a medical record or blood test — and were in any of the buildings where the student had been during the time he was contagious around Feb.4 to 8.
“The requirement that some members of the faculty and staff remain off campus has resulted in temporarily reduced staffing levels in some departments and offices on campus,” the school said in a news release issued Monday.
This is the second health emergency that the school has had to respond to in the recent past. Starting in 2013, the school faced a meningitis outbreak that led to students getting treated with an unlicensed vaccination.