FILE - This undated image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Feb. 4, 2015 shows an electron microscope image of a measles virus particle, center.
Cynthia Goldsmith / AP
Six additional cases of measles have been reported in Clark County, but the public health department says there is no evidence that the virus is spreading in public locations.
The new cases are all connected to a case reported last month, and the county public health officer says the new cases were exposed in non-public locations.
Five of the six new cases are in children, and one case is a person 18 years or older. Five of the cases are confirmed unvaccinated.
The first symptoms of the measles are typically a high fever, runny nose, cough and red eyes, according to the CDC. Three to five days after those first symptoms, a rash appears and spreads down the body.
Clark County Public Health is asking people who believe they have symptoms of measles to call their health care provider before visiting a clinic to make a plan that avoids exposing others in the waiting room.
South Carolina and Utah are currently experiencing large outbreaks of measles. The outbreak in South Carolina, which has infected more than 800 people, has also led to exposures of people in other states.
Oregon has reported a total of four confirmed cases so far this year in Linn and Clackamas counties. Clark County now has seven confirmed cases.
Measles is highly contagious and spreads through the air after a person with measles coughs or sneezes. The virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after someone who is infectious has left.
A person with measles can transmit the virus for four days before the rash first appears, according to the CDC.
Clark County suffered a measles outbreak in 2019, when 71 people got the virus after an unvaccinated child who had recently arrived from Ukraine fell ill.
A CDC report on that outbreak includes some insights into who was particularly at risk, and where the virus was the most likely to spread.
In 2019, the majority of the cases in Clark County, 52 out of 71, were children 10 and under. Most (61 people) were confirmed to be unvaccinated. Transmission occurred primarily in churches and within households, according to the CDC. Vaccination and social distancing effectively stopped the outbreak.
Measles can be dangerous, especially among infants and children younger than 5, adults older than 20, pregnant people, and people with weakened immune systems, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Complications include ear infection, lung infection and diarrhea, and in rare cases, swelling of the brain.
Two doses of the MMR vaccine is 97% effective at preventing measles. The shots are recommended by the CDC, the West Coast Health Alliance, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In Washington, 90.9% of kindergarteners have received both doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. In Oregon, it’s 90.5%. That’s below the threshold public health experts believe is necessary to prevent a single case of measles from spreading and infecting others.
