Local Motion: Delta County health officials prep for measles spread with education, vaccine clinics

On this episode of Local Motion, KVNF's weekly public affairs program, we talk about the measles outbreak in the U.S. and how Delta County is preparing for potential cases locally.

Our expert guests are Mary Cable, Infection Preventionist for Delta Health Hospital, and Leah Rawson, Delta County Public Health Nurse Manager.

Our interview was conducted on Monday, April 14, so some data points may have changed since then.

Delta County Public Health is hosting an MMR (Measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination clinic on Friday, April 25, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and again on Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Local Motion airs Tuesday evenings at 6 and Saturday mornings at 10:30 on KVNF. Explore past episodes here.

Leah Rawson, Delta County Public Health Nurse Manager: We know that we have three individual cases...in Pueblo County, Denver County, and Archuleta County. We do not have an outbreak at this time.

Mary Cable, Infection Preventionist for Delta Health Hospital: Measles is one of the most contagious communicable diseases known to humans. It has an RO. You may be familiar with that term through the COVID pandemic. It means how many people can one infected person infect if that population is susceptible. Measles has an RO of 12 to 18, which is basically one of the highest that we know of. It is very contagious.

As far as the severity of the disease, one in five children who are infected can end up hospitalized, and out of a thousand children who are infected, one to three can die from measles.

It's considered an airborne virus, so it spreads through respiratory aerosols and respiratory droplets, which are a little larger. Respiratory aerosols are much finer and smaller and can ride in these little turbulences of your atmospheric air or ambient air for up to two hours. Even two hours after the infected person has left that airspace.

Same thing with inanimate surfaces. It can stay active and infect inanimate surfaces for up to two hours without proper disinfection. Fortunately, measles is a virus that's easy to disinfect, so any of your normal hospital-grade cleaners or, if you have a household cleaner that's labeled to be effective against bloodborne pathogens, such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, would be effective against measles as well.

Cable: Broad, overall 'everyone mask,' especially if we don't have an outbreak situation, isn't really necessary. Would it have a negative effect? No. For a person suspected to have a measles infection, but it's not yet confirmed, it can be helpful if they wear a mask for source control, so it just limits the amount of virus that they can release. For healthcare personnel who are taking care of patients that are either possibly infected with or known to be infected with measles, it's helpful for them to wear at least an N95 NIOSH-rated respiratory mask or even a positive air pressure purifying respirator mask.

Rawson: People born prior to 1957 are likely immune because they were alive during a time when measles was quite endemic. A lot of those people remember that because those are the people who are calling us to see if they need a vaccine. They remember how awful it was. The measles vaccine is a very safe vaccine. It's been well researched. The vaccine has...it's been found to be safe and effective. We know this, we know that it's literally been given to millions of people. There are side effects, as there are with any vaccine. Generally, they're mild, but there can be other side effects. Most people do really well with the vaccine.

Rawson: We know that children are one of the most vulnerable populations. We also know that the rate of vaccination for MMR has declined over time, starting with the beginning of COVID. Vaccine hesitancy increased. There are children who have never been vaccinated. We're very concerned about that population and that low immunization rate. The vaccine should be given for MMR beginning at age one. They get one dose and then a second dose at the age of four to six. With the two doses, that's 97% effectiveness. Even just one dose, it's 93%. It will take two weeks to develop antibodies so that they have protection from the virus. The clinic that we're planning at Delta County Public Health will be on April 25th and 26th, which is a Friday and Saturday.

We have MMR vaccines available at our primary care clinics, Delta Family Medicine, pediatric adult primary care, West Elk Clinic, and Cedaredge Clinic. You can also make just a nurse appointment. You can call the clinic, and they can help set up an appointment.

Rawson: Vaccine records for adults can be pretty difficult to get because the system that we have in place hasn't been around that long for adults. The other option would be to get a titer, where they draw the blood and see what the antibody level for measles is to know if [a patient is] immune.

Rawson: Measles begins with viral symptoms, such as cough, runny nose, and red eyes. White spots, called colic spots, can also appear inside the mouth and on the cheeks. If somebody is even suspicious that they have measles, I would encourage them to call their healthcare provider, talk about the symptoms, and see what their guidance is. We don't want them to just show up at an urgent care, emergency room, or provider's office.

Some of these people could get very sick and need hospitalization. We know that kids would be particularly vulnerable to the virus. The fever you could get with measles could be a very high fever, and then they can develop pneumonia, which, of course, they'd need to be hospitalized for. And encephalitis, which is a swelling of the brain, and it was spreading into the nervous system and brain, which could be very, very severe, and they would need medical support with that. We know there is no cure for measles, so supportive care is what to do.