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EVERETT – The Snohomish County Health Department has declared an end to the recent measles outbreak, but health officials urge residents to be on the alert for future cases of the highly contagious disease.

The department recorded 14 cases of measles during the outbreak, which was announced Jan. 15. The last reported case was Feb. 17.

“After strong community support and dedicated work by our health department teams, we’re happy and relieved that the current outbreak is over,” said Snohomish County Health Officer Dr. James Lewis. “That being said, we fully expect additional cases of measles to be introduced into Snohomish County as evidenced by ongoing exposures across the state.”

So far this year, 33 cases of measles have been recorded in Washington, according to the Washington State Department of Health. The two most recent cases were reported Friday in Walla Walla and Kittitas counties.

Two cases were also reported last week in neighboring King County. The Snohomish County Health Department is following up with more than a dozen residents of Snohomish County who were potentially exposed to the virus in the King County locations.

In addition to spring and summer travel, this summer’s World Cup events are expected to bring hundreds of thousands of international travelers to the Seattle area. With those tourists comes the possibility of more measles and other communicable diseases.

“We know we’re going to be dealing with more cases and more exposure sites,” Dr. Lewis said. “With spring travel now starting, this is a perfect time to know your immunization status. If you aren’t immunized, or can’t find proof of it, we recommend getting the MMR vaccine as soon as possible.”

The MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine is incredibly effective. Two shots provide a lifetime of protection against the three diseases. The MMR vaccine is considered 97% effective against measles.

Measles is one of the world’s most contagious diseases. Nine out of 10 unvaccinated people will likely contract the virus if exposed to a measles patient. During the recent outbreak, all the Snohomish County residents who became infected were unvaccinated.

An outbreak is defined as when measles spreads among three or more people in the same community. It can be declared over after two full incubation periods – or six weeks – with no new cases. An incubation period is the time between when someone is exposed to a disease and when they first show symptoms. For measles, the incubation period is one to three weeks.

In Snohomish County, Feb. 21 was the last day of infectiousness for one of the measles cases, making Saturday, April 4, the last day of the outbreak.

Snohomish County’s comprehensive response to the outbreak included case investigation, vaccination efforts, contact tracing and symptom monitoring. The response required about 300 phone calls, over 1,000 hours of staff time and more than $104,000 in costs.

Much of the outreach featured tailored messaging in multiple languages to reach affected communities.

“We’re grateful the communities worked with us,” said Health Department Director Kim Van Pelt. “If not for their cooperation and the hard work of our team, we almost certainly would have seen more cases than we did.”

For answers to frequent questions about measles, including how to protect your family if you’re traveling, visit the measles page on the Snohomish County Health Department website.

Author: Lynnwood Times Staff