Health officials are warning about a potential measles exposure at Pearson International Airport and several medical facilities in Peel Region.

Peel Public Health says it is investigating a “possible case” of the highly contagious virus in a Brampton child.

“Members of the public may have been exposed to measles in a number of settings in Brampton and Mississauga during the period of Jan. 1 to 5,” Peel Public Health said in a recently released statement. “This possible case arrived in Canada from a measles-endemic country just prior to becoming ill.”

Public Health says the child in question flew from to Toronto from Pakistan, with a stopover in United Arab Emirates, on New Year’s Day.

In the days that followed the child visited two different walk-in clinics and a hospital in Peel.

Measles is an airborne virus that can only live outside the body, on surfaces, for up to two hours.

So health officials are concerned people in the following locations at the times listed may have been exposed:

- Emirates Airline flight EK0605 from Karachi to Dubai to Toronto

- Pearson’s Terminal One from 3:25 p.m. to 7:25 p.m. on Jan. 1

- Multi-Specialty Walk-in Clinic, 21 Queensway W., in Mississauga, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m on Jan. 3

- Brampton Urgent Care Clinic, 51 Mountainash Rd., in Brampton, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

- Brampton Civic Hospital Emergency Dept., 2100 Bovaird Dr. E., in Brampton, from 8:45 p.m. on Jan. 5 to 3:45 a.m. on Jan. 6

Those who believe they may have been exposed should check their immunization records to ensure they have had two doses of the measles vaccine.

People should also watch for symptoms such as a high fever, cough, runny nose, sore eyes or sensitivity to light, small spots with a white centre on the inside of the mouth and a red rash.

“Anyone who shows symptoms should call their health care provider immediately and tell them they have been exposed to measles and feel unwell,” Public Health says. “Do not go to any medical facility without telling them before the appointment that you have been in contact with someone who has measles.”

chris.doucette@sunmedia.ca