"I really hope people reconsider not getting immunized," Conway said, adding that it is perfectly safe to receive more than the recommended two vaccine doses if someone is unsure about their vaccination history and would rather not chance it.

"It's a safe and incredibly effective vaccine," he said. "I've had it three times."

The second bit of advice Conway is giving healthcare workers is to familiarize themselves with the disease's symptoms.

"We've done such a good job of almost eliminating the disease that there's a whole generation of doctors and nurses who have never seen measles," Conway said. "It's a pretty tricky disease to diagnose even when you're dealing with it on a regular basis."

A skin rash is observed on a patient's abdomen 3-days after the onset of a measles infection. The image was captured at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in 1958.

Correctly diagnosing measles often comes down to asking the right questions, Conway said, including asking whether patients were recently traveling and whether they were in contact with sick individuals.

"Instead of assuming that every fever or cough is just viral flu or something like that, [healthcare professionals] need to ask the right questions," he said.