Oregon’s measles outbreak the biggest in five years

After only one measles case in Oregon last year, it now has six and could very well have more in the next few weeks.

The outbreak comes amid others also involving a preventable disease – pertussis or whooping cough – which has infected more than 350 people in just over a dozen counties this year.

The measles outbreak – the biggest in Oregon since 2019 – is centered in Marion County and emerged in mid-June, when the Oregon Health Authority announced that an unvaccinated adult and child in the same household became sick. They live in Clackamas County, but Oregon Health Authority officials said they were infected in Marion County.

County officials announced a separate case involving an unvaccinated child at the same time.

Within the past week, Marion County health officials said three more unvaccinated children have been infected. Melissa Gable, a county spokeswoman, said the cases involve children in separate households between the ages of 4 to 14 years old.

“Our communicable disease team is actively investigating all cases but currently there are no known connections between them,” Gable said.

That means others could be infected or that more cases could emerge, state officials said.

“I think we expect we will see more measles cases due to the infectiousness of the disease but we certainly hope we don’t,” said Jonathan Modie, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority.

The whooping cough outbreaks might not be over, either, health officials said. Modie said there have been 12 outbreaks in Lane, Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Deschutes, Jefferson, Josephine, Marion, Linn, Columbia, Hood River, Benton and Yamhill counties in descending order based on the number of cases, with more than 130 in Lane County.

Both diseases spread through the air when an infected individual coughs or sneezes, with measles particles able to stay airborne for two hours, making it especially infectious. It can cause a fever, cough, runny nose or red eyes and is usually associated with a rash that starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body. It also can cause more severe symptoms, including ear infections, pneumonia, and, in rare instances, swelling of the brain.

Whooping cough spreads much the same way and is also associated with a cough, often violent and associated with a “whooping sound,” that can last for weeks or months. Other symptoms include sneezing, a running nose, fever and watery eyes.

People are contagious with whooping cough when they have cold-like symptoms and can remain so up to three weeks after they start coughing.

Patients with measles are contagious for four days before a rash appears and up to four days afterward.

Both diseases are preventable with vaccines. For whooping cough, doctors recommend five doses of the DTaP, or diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, for children and one for preteens. Full vaccination is about 85% effective in preventing disease while the measles vaccine is even more effective – 97%. Officials recommend two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella or MMR vaccine, first between when children are 12 to 15 months old and the second starting at 4 years though 6. People are considered immune to measles if they were born before 1957 before the widespread use of the vaccine, have been vaccinated or have been infected.

With widespread vaccine campaigns, the World Health Organization declared the disease eradicated in the U.S. in 2000. But it has reemerged, with people bringing the disease in from abroad and an increasing number of parents not getting their kids vaccinated.

Oregon has required children entering kindergarten since 1998 to have two doses of the measles-containing vaccine, though parents can opt-out by obtaining a medical or nonmedical exemption. Measles vaccination is also required for children attending child care facilities and for students in post-secondary colleges or universities.

There are currently measles outbreaks in 24 states, including Oregon, in the West, Midwest, East Coast and South, with nearly 170 people infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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