The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a CDC Health Advisory entitled "High Number of Reported Measles Cases in the U.S. in 2011 - Linked to Outbreaks Abroad." The Advisory's recommendations for Health Care Providers include: "Obtain specimens for testing, including viral specimens for confirmation and genotyping."   The full advisory can be found here: http://emergency.cdc.gov/HAN/han00323.asp

A link to the CDC Measles Reference page is also provided as it gives laboratory-specific information on the collection, preservation and shipment of specimens for measles detection and characterization: http://www.cdc.gov/measles/lab-tools/rt-pcr.html