Health officials await results for 12th child
By Cheryl Clark
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 16, 2008
Five more children in San Diego have tested positive for measles, bringing to 11 the total number of patients in a month long outbreak that has spread to schools, grocery stores, the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Hawaii, county officials said yesterday.
Two other youngsters have developed symptoms of measles, but county officials have not discovered a link between them and the current outbreak.
One of the newly confirmed patients is an 8-year-old who may have spread the measles virus during a visit to Whole Foods Market in Hillcrest that started at 5 p.m. and lasted about an hour Jan. 29.
Two days later, the child attended “Corteo,” a performance by the group Cirque du Soleil, at the fairgrounds. He or she may have infected spectators and employees at the 4 and 8 p.m. shows.
The child also went to Trader Joe's in Hillcrest between 1 and 2 p.m. Feb. 3.
“It is extremely important that people, particularly children . . . are aware that they may have been exposed to measles,” said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's public health officer. The potentially fatal and highly contagious disease takes several weeks to run its course.
Wooten said there's no longer an infection risk at the fairgrounds and two supermarkets because the measles virus can't survive for more than two hours after it is expelled by a cough or sneeze.
Facts about measles
Highly infectious viral disease is transmitted through respiratory droplets from the nose and mouth.
Takes seven to 18 days for symptoms to appear after infection.
Symptoms include fever, runny nose, cough, loss of appetite, “pink eye” and a rash lasting five or six days.
Complications include diarrhea, ear infections and pneumonia.
Permanent brain damage in one per 1,000 infected children in the United States. Death in up to three per 1,000 infected children.
Vaccination helps protect against measles, mumps and rubella.
Information: Contact county health officials at (619) 692-8661.
Sources: San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency; national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The measles outbreak is San Diego County's first since 1991. It began when a 7-year-old patient returned from Switzerland on Jan. 15 with what would later be confirmed as measles. He or she infected two siblings and at least four classmates. The 8-year-old patient identified yesterday is a classmate of the 7-year-old.
On Jan. 25, the 7-year-old's parents took the youngster to the Children's Clinic of La Jolla. The child may have coughed and sneezed in the office, thus infecting four other children.
Those four patients returned to the clinic between Feb. 5 and 8, possibly spreading the virus to 60 other children.
All of the 11 confirmed patients, from 10 months to 9 years old, were not vaccinated either because they were younger than 1 – the minimum age for measles inoculation – or because their parents objected to having them vaccinated, county officials said.
School leaders, health officials and physicians say they hope the outbreak will persuade parents to have their children inoculated against measles, mumps and rubella. They said the vaccine is safe.
However, a growing number of parents are exercising their right under California law to decline vaccination for their children. They fear that vaccines may be linked to autism.
Measles was widespread in the United States before a vaccine was developed in the early 1960s. At that time, many parents felt relieved when their children got measles because the infection meant the youngsters would be immunized for the rest of their lives.
Today, non-immunization rates throughout San Diego County average 1.6 percent in preschool students and 2.5 percent in kindergartners, Wooten said.
As the outbreak continues to unfold, health officials in San Diego and Hawaii are trying to track down the thousands of individuals potentially exposed to measles.
Infection experts from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health Services are working with more than 30 of San Diego County's employees.
These health officials are seeking prospective patients linked to the San Diego Cooperative Charter School in Linda Vista; Children's Clinic of La Jolla in Bird Rock; School of the Madeleine and the Alcott Elementary School Infant & Toddler Development Program, both in Clairemont; Baldwin Academy and Murray Callan Swim School, both in Pacific Beach; the fairgrounds; and the two grocery stores in Hillcrest.
Hawaiian health officials are contacting the roughly 250 passengers who may have been exposed to measles from an infected child aboard Hawaiian Airlines Flight 15, which left Lindbergh Field on Feb. 9. Also potentially affected are people who were at the airport's Terminal 2, Gate 41 between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. that day.
Measles causes a high fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes. A rash usually follows.
In the United States, measles can be fatal in up to three per 1,000 children who contract it. The death rates are higher in developing countries.
Children are more at risk of suffering complications, including pneumonia and swelling of the brain, than senior citizens. Most adults have been immunized by the measles vaccine or by getting measles when they were young.
story
It's only a matter or time before vaccinated individuals start showing up as cases as well, since the vaccine is only creates immunity in 95% of people (according to the package insert).
You'd think this would prove a point, yet all the champions of non-vaccination that I know are just saying it's "cool" and "good for these kids, now they have natural immunity!"
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