The Washington State Health Department shot down speculation that Clark County’s measles outbreak has a confirmed “patient zero” on Wednesday.
As the county’s confirmed measles cases rose to 51, along with 13 suspected cases, and two new exposure dates, Julie Graham, a public information officer with the state health department, said that “patient zero” is not a term the department even uses. Some media outlets have reported “patient zero” was from another country. Graham said those reports are inaccurate.
“The concept of patient zero was a term that someone coined that doesn’t have any scientific meaning for us,” she said.
On Wednesday, there were three medical facilities named as exposure locations. Two of those facilities also added more exposure dates and times, according to Thursday’s Clark County Public Health news release:
n The Vancouver Clinic Salmon Creek, 2525 N.E. 139th St., Vancouver from 2:50 to 6 p.m. Feb. 4.
n Sea Mar Medical Clinic East Vancouver, 19005 S.E. 34th St., Vancouver from 1:50 to 5:50 p.m. Feb. 5.
Visit here for a complete list of exposure sites: www.columbian.com/news/2019/jan/29/measles-exposure-sites.
Clark County Public Health Director Dr. Alan Melnick urged people to call their medical provider before visiting their office, saying, “If you think you might have measles, don’t just go to a health care facility. Call them first so they can see you safely.”
‘Patient zero’
Graham did say the state health department has confirmed that every Washington case of measles since the first confirmed case has matched the same wild strain of measles as that first case. That strain is currently circulating in Eastern Europe.
Clark County Public Health Department Public Information Officer Marissa Armstrong said that the first case in the Clark County outbreak was a child who had traveled to Clark County from outside the country — information that was announced in the initial outbreak news release Jan. 4.
But that doesn’t mean the child was “patient zero” of the outbreak, Armstrong said, because the fact that they were the first case confirmed by Public Health does not mean they were the source of the local outbreak.
“We may never know who ‘patient zero’ is,” Armstrong said in an email, adding, “it doesn’t have any impact on how we’re responding to this outbreak.”
Melnick echoed Armstrong and added that there are probably unknown people with measles in the county who haven’t visited a health care provider. He said he wants people not to focus on patient zero but instead on ways that Clark County can improve its defense against outbreaks.
“I question the reasoning behind trying to find out who ‘patient zero’ is,” Melnick said. “Are we trying to point the finger or blame somebody?”
Exemption bill hearing
Of the 51 cases confirmed, 45 had not been immunized against the highly contagious virus. Immunization status could not be verified for six cases, and one case involved a child who had received only a single dose of the MMR vaccine. Two of those cases have moved to Georgia.
Confirmed Clark County cases include 36 children ages 1 to 10; 13 youths ages 11 to 18; one adult between 19 and 29 and one adult between 30 and 39. There is also a confirmed case in King County and four in Multnomah County, Ore.
According to the Associated Press, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday urged residents to get vaccinated. She also said Oregon will probably examine tightening its exemption laws, but her statement lacked specifics on that concept.
All 50 states require students to be vaccinated, but 18 states, including Washington, allow for personal and philosophical exemptions to vaccination. House Bill 1638, which is sponsored by Rep. Paul Harris, a Vancouver Republican, and Rep. Monica Stonier, a Vancouver Democrat, is scheduled for a public hearing in the House Committee on Health Care & Wellness today. That bill would eliminate personal and philosophical exemptions for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, has introduced Senate Bill 5841, an even stricter vaccine bill that would eliminate the same exemptions for other immunizations in addition to MMR. Both proposals would keep the state’s medical and religious exemptions.
