The growing measles outbreak in Clark County has prompted an increase in residents seeking to be tested for immunity to the virus, with multiple local blood test labs and clinics reporting substantial increases in the number of tests performed in recent weeks.
The Vancouver Clinic has seen a more than tenfold increase in testing requests across its four urgent care locations in Clark County, according to marketing director Chastell Ely.
“Typically we’re averaging between 20 and 50 tests per month,” she said on Friday. “So far in January, we’ve done 500-plus.”
The procedure, known as a titer test, analyses a patient’s blood sample to detect the presence of the specific antibodies needed to fight off infections. Some versions screen only for measles resistance, while others combine it with a test for resistance to mumps and rubella, similar to how the MMR vaccination targets all three viruses.
“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in testing for immunity, starting around last Thursday,” said Eileen Morton, lab manager at the Fourth Plain Boulevard branch of the company Any Lab Test Now, which offers quick $50 immunity tests for measles alone, with results usually available the following day.
The lab’s testing rate for measles has increased by at least 70 percent, she said. Most of the people coming in for the test have been adults over the age of 30 who haven’t been able to track down proof of their immunizations in their medical records, Morton said, and many of them are contract workers at places such as day care centers and need to provide proof of immunity before they’re allowed back at work.
Residents can also contact their primary care doctors to set up the tests, Morton said, but clinics like Any Lab Test Now are another option for people who need results as fast as possible. The clinic expects the increased testing rate to continue until the current outbreak is under control, Morton said.
If the blood test ends up showing a vulnerability to measles, the lab also offers an MMR vaccine. The vaccine is also available at many commercial pharmacy locations such as Walgreens and Safeway.
Not every clinic has seen the same uptick; the Arcpoint Labs branch near Vancouver Mall also offers measles testing, but medical assistant Nancy Goetschius said the lab’s traffic hasn’t substantially changed. That might be due in part to costs, she said; Arcpoint doesn’t offer a singular measles immunity test, only the combined MMR blood test for $129.
“Due to the expense of testing, it’s almost cheaper to just be vaccinated,” she said.
Some residents appear to be taking that approach; employees at multiple local pharmacies that offer the MMR vaccine reported seeing higher-than-usual numbers of people coming in to receive it in recent days.
PeaceHealth Southwest spokesman Randy Querin said the health care center does offer a measles antibody test and has been administering it to its own doctors in the past week to make sure they’re all truly immune.
“The vaccine is excellent, but it’s not perfect,” he said. “For about 2 percent (of recipients), it doesn’t take; they don’t build up immunity to it.”
However, Querin said PeaceHealth is asking patients to speak to their primary care providers about an immunity test and to visit pharmacy locations like Walgreens to get vaccinated, rather than visiting a PeaceHealth location. People worried about their immune history can also visit myir.net, a website that can help track down immunization records, he said.
“The answer (about testing) is yes, but not today,” he said. “We’re not doing that right now because we don’t want people coming to our hospital unless they need to be here.”
