The Maricopa County Department of Public Health has identified six new sites with public exposure to measles. There have been 25 confirmed cases so far this year in the county, which is significantly higher than the annual average.
Ariella Dale, chief science officer with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, spoke to The Show more about this.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Ariella, good morning. Thanks for being here.
ARIELLA DALE: Good morning. Thank you for having me.
MARK BRODIE: So where are these sites?
ARIELLA DALE: So these sites are located throughout Maricopa County. We really encourage folks to visit our website, maricopa.gov/measles, because we are adding sites as we become aware of them. So these are located in different parts of the county.
MARK BRODIE: Is it concerning at all that it’s not clustered in one area, that it really is kind of countywide?
ARIELLA DALE: It is concerning for us. As we’ve seen, the trends in Maricopa County are mirroring those in the United States. We’re seeing more and more measles cases. So we really want to encourage folks to remember that the best way to protect themselves is to get the measles vaccination for themselves and for others.
MARK BRODIE: And so let’s say somebody gets the vaccine today. How long does it take until you have that immunity?
ARIELLA DALE: So for measles vaccinations, it takes time for each individual person, for their immune system to come up to speed. So we do say within a few weeks folks should enjoy that full protection and be protected from measles.
MARK BRODIE: OK. And in terms of the numbers, are you expecting there to be more? I mentioned there have been 25 confirmed cases so far. Are you expecting that number to grow?
ARIELLA DALE: You know, that’s hard to predict at this time, but we certainly are continuing to monitor and have our enhanced surveillance efforts for measles cases. We encourage folks who have been at those sites to have a low threshold for seeking healthcare if they have any of the signs and symptoms for measles, such as fever, rash, cough.
MARK BRODIE: If they do, they should go get tested for it and not think, “Oh, I just have a cold or something.”
ARIELLA DALE: Right, we would want them to go ahead and work with their healthcare provider and get tested if they’ve been at one of these sites.
MARK BRODIE: OK. And how are you discovering these sites? Like what’s that process like in terms of saying, “OK, there’s been somebody who was at this particular place”?
ARIELLA DALE: Yeah, so as part of our routine public health activities, we conduct case investigations, and so we will work with the person who has measles to understand where they have been in the community. And then once we are aware of where they’ve been in the community, when there’s a risk of exposure for the public where we’re unable to identify who all could have been there, then we will post on our website and do these press releases so that everyone is aware of their risk and can protect themselves if needed.
MARK BRODIE: Have you found that there are people who have been at some of these places who feel like they might be exposed who are proactively going to get tested? Like is there evidence to suggest people are doing that?
ARIELLA DALE: At this time, we want to just encourage folks to continue reporting in and to working with their healthcare providers. Those exposures have occurred very recently, so we will continue to monitor for several weeks for any potential cases that come as a result of this.
MARK BRODIE: Are you anticipating that this is going to continue for a little while now?
ARIELLA DALE: We do anticipate, just like we’re seeing nationally, there’s more and more cases of measles. And so we are prepared as public health to respond to those new cases.
MARK BRODIE: We heard, for example, in Mohave County, public health officials there were saying, “Well, we think this is pretty well contained. We think this is pretty well over.” It sounds like that’s not the case in Maricopa County for sure right now, and maybe won’t be for a while into the future?
ARIELLA DALE: That’s true. I think when we think about measles and measles vaccination, we’re looking for a 95% threshold of vaccination, and we do know that we are under that as a county. So we expect that there will still be cases that will occur in the coming months either related to these clusters or even new cases.
MARK BRODIE: Are there any traits that the folks who have been confirmed to have measles share, like by age or any other kind of demographic data?
ARIELLA DALE: For these cases, our highest risk groups are thinking about those who are unvaccinated. And so when we think about unvaccinated individuals, we think about, you know, those are different people throughout our community. So there’s not necessarily risk factors otherwise that these folks are sharing.
MARK BRODIE: OK. And how much of this is due to people who are not vaccinated?
ARIELLA DALE: That continues to be the leading contributor to measles infections here in the county. We have folks who are not vaccinated.
MARK BRODIE: So it’s mostly a fact that like, would you say most if not all of the people who have contracted measles have not been vaccinated?
ARIELLA DALE: Most if not all. You know, nationally, we’re seeing that 97% of cases that have been reported to the CDC were unvaccinated.
MARK BRODIE: And would it be your expectation that that statistic would continue, that to the extent that there are further cases here in Maricopa County going forward, that those would also be among folks who have not gotten vaccinated?
ARIELLA DALE: Yes, we would expect for that trend to continue. The vaccination is very effective, it’s safe, and so we think that this will continue to protect people for those who are vaccinated, that the unvaccinated individuals will be at the highest risk.
MARK BRODIE: OK. That is Ariella Dale, Chief Science Officer with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health. Ariella, thanks so much for your time and your insights, I appreciate it.
ARIELLA DALE: Thank you so much.
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