SPOKANE — Two more Spokane residents have contracted measles following an outbreak last month. All of the three measles patients are unvaccinated and live in the same household, health officials said.
So far, the highly infectious disease has not been shown to have spread beyond this household, but the possibility of more cases remains for several weeks.
Extremely rare in the modern era because of widespread vaccination, health officials still take the virus seriously because of how easily it spreads and how serious it can be for young children.
The first person infected contracted measles while abroad. That person was in the Spokane International Airport on Feb. 12 and continued to be in public before isolating later that week.
Because all three individuals were quarantined, there are no new possibilities of exposure within the community other than those previously reported. That includes the following locations and times:
- The Spokane International Airport’s Concourse B between 9:30 p.m. Feb. 11 and 12:30 a.m. Feb. 12.
- The Deer Park Library, 208 S. Forest Ave., between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Feb. 12.
- Rozy’z Hot Shotz drive-thru in Deer Park, 617 S. Fir Ave., between 4 and 8:30 p.m. Feb . 12.
- The Deer Park Taco Bell, 807 S. Main Ave., during evening hours still to be determined on Feb. 12.
- Creekside Kenpo Karate in Deer Park, 3506 Eloika Road, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13.
- Deer Park’s Horizon Credit Union, 900 S. Main St., from 4:30 to 7:15 p.m. Feb. 15.
After March 8, these locations will no longer be considered exposure sites. So if a new case is confirmed after Friday, then there would be a new list of possible exposure locations with a new timeline.
These are the first measles cases in the county since 2015.
