Measles epidemic in Ohio has almost tripled and is expected to last "several months"

A false color image of the measles virus. Arizona Department of Health

A measles outbreak in the Columbus, Ohio area has nearly tripled in the past two weeks as officials said they struggled to identify the geographic spread of the outbreak and expect it to drag on for months.< /p>

Confirmed cases rose from 18 in mid-November to 50 confirmed cases as of Friday morning. Twenty of the cases required hospitalization. No deaths have been reported.

Not all sick children are vaccinated. Nine of the cases are in babies under the age of 1, who are usually not yet eligible for vaccination. Twenty-six cases involve infants aged 1 to 2 years, who are eligible for their first dose. Ten cases involve toddlers between the ages of 3 and 5, some of whom may have received their second dose, and there are five cases in children between the ages of 6 and 17.

At a press conference earlier this week, health officials said at least 25% of 2-year-olds in the region had not been vaccinated with the safe and effective MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Census data from Franklin County, which encompasses Columbus, means tens of thousands of area children are vulnerable to the highly infectious virus that can easily become serious and even life-threatening in young people. children.

should grow

Measles is an airborne virus, transmitted by coughing, talking or even being close to an infected person. In indoor spaces, the virus can persist in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has passed through. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to 90% of unvaccinated people exposed to the virus will become infected.

"I expect our numbers to continue to grow," Columbus Public Health Commissioner Mysheika Roberts said at a news conference this week. "Talking to the CDC and our colleagues across the country who have experienced measles outbreaks, this can last for several months."

Local health officials are now working closely with the CDC and Nationwide Children's Hospital to treat cases and try to curb the outbreak. But, Roberts acknowledged at the press conference that they were still struggling to understand the scale of the outbreak.

For example, in some responses to a measles outbreak, health officials may make the decision to preemptively vaccinate infants aged 6-11 months if they are considered to be at high risk of infection. Infants are usually eligible for their first dose of MMR at age 12. months, with a second dose given between 4 and 6 years. But this early vaccination strategy is usually deployed when epidemiologists can identify communities at risk, which is not the case in Columbus.

"We've had discussions with the CDC about this," Roberts said. "Communities that have done this in the past have been able to really define the geographic location of where the cases are. We're not sure we can really narrow down the geographic area. So we're looking at that from We're working with our CDC colleagues [and] really trying to figure out where these cases are to see if there's a segment of our community that we could offer as an option for parents."

Roberts noted that, so far, the outbreak spans three public health jurisdictions: Columbus Public Health, Franklin County Public Health, and the Ross County Health District. Ross County is approximately 75 miles south of Franklin County, with another county, Pickaway, in between.

"Get them vaccinated now"

In addition to the three geographic areas, Roberts also noted three specific locations where confirmed cases were known to have been contagious, which included a grocery store, church, and shopping mall. She listed the locations, dates and times of potential exposures down to the times, taking into account the possibility of the virus spreading...