With the start of a new school year approaching, Oregon is contending with its largest measles outbreak since 2019. Health officials are urging parents to get their youngsters vaccinated now.
Oregon Health Authority’s Dr. Paul Cieslak is medical director of communicable disease and immunizations. He said measles may be the most transmissible disease we know of.
“If someone with measles coughs into the air and you walk into the room an hour later--you could contract measles if you are susceptible, simply by breathing the air that that person coughed into. It’s that contagious,” Cieslak said at a recent press briefing.
With just three weeks until most schools start back, measles transmission continues in unvaccinated pockets of the state. This has Cieslak and others concerned over the health safety of classrooms. Oregon law requires unvaccinated children exposed to the virus be excluded from school for 7 to 21 days or longer.
Measles, Mumps & Rubella (or MMR) vaccines are available through health care providers and public health departments.
Twenty-five years ago, about 1% of kindergarteners claimed exemption from school vaccination requirements, according to OHA. Since then, the number has steadily risen. Now, the vaccination exemption rate is 8.8%.
Of the 25 confirmed cases of measles in the current outbreak, 19 of them are school-aged. So far, transmission of the virus has been limited to Clackamas, Marion and Multnomah counties. OHA reports all the cases are unvaccinated individuals, two people have been hospitalized, and there have been no deaths.
“People are contagious with measles for up to four days before they show the characteristic rash of measles,” Cieslak said. “Someone could not even know they have measles yet and be transmitting it for four days.”
The symptoms for measles are high fever,104 degrees or higher, dry cough, swollen eyelids and red eyes, runny nose followed by a reddish-brown skin rash. Complications associated with the disease may include ear infection, brain swelling, and pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death due to measles.
The Measles Mumps & Rubella, or MMR vaccine, is highly effective with two doses providing 97% immunity against measles, Cieslak said. “If enough people are vaccinated, transmission of the virus could be stopped through community immunity,” he said.
