The county is nearing the end of its measles outbreak after the first case was announced Jan. 4 by Clark County Public Health.
At the Clark County Board of Health meeting Wednesday, Public Health Director Dr. Alan Melnick said if the county can make it through Sunday without any new confirmed measles cases, his office will officially declare the outbreak over Monday morning.
The end date was decided upon by Public Health, the Washington Department of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Melnick explained at the meeting.
Melnick said the state and CDC were fine with the end date being today. However, Melnick said he wanted to count 42 days — or two incubation periods — from four days after rash onset, or the last day the last confirmed case was contagious, which was March 17. The CDC and state suggested counting from the first day of rash onset, before agreeing with Melnick’s proposal.
“We, Clark County Public Health, want to be a little more conservative. … I’d rather be a little bit later than a little bit sooner on this,” Melnick said at the meeting.
Clark County’s outbreak has tallied 73 confirmed cases, and cost the state more than $1 million to fight. Melnick said it has cost the county more than $800,000, and Public Health employees had to shift duties during its peak to assist in outbreak response. That meant county nurses, food inspectors, septic workers and other employees put their regular duties on the back burner.
Clark County had one hospitalization during the outbreak, and in January, Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency in response to the outbreak.
So far this year, there have been 695 cases of measles in the United States, the CDC reported Wednesday, the highest U.S. total since 1994. That record number of cases for the last 25 years has led to renewed discussions on vaccinations and sparked legislation in Washington.
House Bill 1638, which was sponsored by state Rep. Paul Harris, a Vancouver Republican, and state Rep. Monica Stonier, a Vancouver Democrat, passed the House and Senate. Inslee is expected to sign the bill into law.
HB 1638 would eliminate personal and philosophical exemptions for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine for attendance in public and private schools and licensed day care centers. California enacted similar legislation in 2015 after measles outbreaks. It has since seen its vaccination rates for children entering school rise by nearly 5 percent.
Melnick has previously said that policy changes are one of the most effective ways to achieve better vaccination rates.
He ended Wednesday’s meeting with a gesture of luck for the outbreak’s conclusion.
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for April 28,” he said.
