Important Note

A throat swab or urine specimen as well as a blood specimen should be collected from all patients with clinical features compatible with measles.

Required: Throat swab for PCR. Sent to Mayo Clinic Labs with turnaround time of 2-3 days. Order Miscellaneous Test (Lab4300) in Epic and specify test code MEASR.

Preferred: In addition to the throat swab, blood should also be collected and sent for Rubeola IgM testing, which is sent to Mayo Clinic Labs with a turnaround time of 2-3 days. Order Measles (Rubeola) Antibodies, IgM (Lab5301) in Epic.

Collection of a urine specimen for PCR can also be helpful in detecting cases of Measles. For urine PCR testing, order Miscellaneous Test (Lab4300) in Epic and specify test code MEASU.

If vaccine status is unknown or to confirm immunity, MEASLES, IgG - Kootenai Health can be ordered as Lab4239 in Epic. This is run at Kootenai Health Lab daily Mon-Fri. 

See respective test catalog pages for each test for further details on specimen collection, stability, and test performance. 

Symptomatic patients SHOULD NOT come to a Kootenai Health Lab location for active measles testing. Specimens to diagnose active measles infection should be collected at the clinic/urgent care location where the patient is initially seen to reduce potential exposures to other patients, given the high volume of patients visiting Kootenai Health Lab locations. If a symptomatic patient does present at a KH Lab location, please ensure they and any staff interacting with them are wearing a mask and redirect them back to the clinic that ordered the testing for specimen collection. They can also go to an urgent care location or Panhandle Health. Please notify lab leadership of any symptomatic patients who come to a lab location requesting measles testing so that they can follow up with Infection Prevention and the referring clinic.