04 02 25 State Epidemiologist Dr Rachel Herlihy talks about the Measles in Colorado

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The first case of measles has been conserved in Colorado
in two years, following the ongoing outbreak in Texas hitting
four hundred and twenty two cases.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Joining us now on the KWA comments bart Health hotline
to talk more about it, as state epidemiologist doctor Rachel Hurleyhea,
Doctor hurleyheayt, thank you so much for your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I know you held a statewide press conference yesterday with
a little bit more information about this, but can you
tell us any more about the specifics of this case,
any other details of how many others may have been
exposed by this patient or how the patient's doing.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, so the good news is that this patient has
recovered and is no longer infectious, So that is good news.
This patient was not hospitalized. But this is a patient
who on Monday was reported to US as a laboratory
confirmed case of measles. This person is an unvaccinated adult

(00:51):
who lives in Tablo County who did recently travel to
an area of Mexico that is experiencing an ongoing measles outbreak.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Doctor Hurley, How contagious is measles? How fast can you
spread it from one person to another.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, measles is actually the most contagious or transmissible and
sexious disease we know of. So if you think of
a population of say ten non immune people, if those
ten non immune people are exposed to a person with measles,
nine of them will come down with SA in section,
so highly transmissible.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Doctor Hurly, Hey, I know you've been stressing that vaccination
is the best prevention. What does it take when it
comes to the details vaccinations, because I know a lot
of people likely got them when they were younger and
may not even be aware if they have the vaccination correct.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
So, yes, that is also a good news here in
that measles is highly preventable. Two doses of the vaccine
are ninety seven percent effective at preventing measles in section.
So this is a vaccine that has been given since
the sixties in the US. So this is a vaccine
that really most people have received at this point. The
vaccine is given to children right around one year of age,

(02:02):
and then right around the time for kindergarten, a second
dose is given. There are a number of adults who
were potentially not vaccinated, and we say that those that
were born before nineteen fifty seven are likely immune because
they likely had the infection that was before the vaccine
was available, and then after that. A lot of adults
received just one dose, but one dose is still highly

(02:24):
effective at about ninety three percent, So not everyone needs
to rush out and get a second dose, but certainly
if you are traveling internationally or live in an outbreak area,
which Colorado is not yet, there might be times when
people might want to go out and get another dose
of the vaccine, especially if you don't know if you've
been vaccinated.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Doctor is vitamin a palpable cure prophylastic for measles? It's
been touted by a lot of people that are vaccine skeptics,
of course, one of them the head of Health Human
Services for the US. But is that a protocol that
can work?

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Unfortunately, there's been quite a bit of misinformation out there
about vitamin A. So there is a role for vitamin A,
but it is quite limited. We use vitamin as as
an additive treatment for individuals that have severe measles infection,
so that's typically going to be young children that are hospitalized.

(03:18):
Vitamin A has been demonstrated to improve outcomes in those children,
but it needs to be given under the supervision of
a healthcare provider because vitamin A is one of those
vitamins that builds up in your body and can be
toxic cause liver damage. So really important that it is
only taken under the supervision of a healthcare provider, and

(03:40):
it is not a preventive treatment. It's really only very
limited role in treatment of kids with severe measles infection.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
You said Colorado is not a measles outbreak area, but
you did use the word yet, So what is the
state doing in order to have prevention and maybe some
tracking efforts to make sure that our state does not
become a major outbreak area.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Absolutely, so, the public health officials in Pueblo County are
doing an excellent job and identifying individuals that we know
had contact with this case and identifying whether those individuals
are vaccinated or not. When individuals aren't vaccinated or immune
to the infection, there is a role for quarantine so

(04:22):
that there's not the risk of the infection being spread
to other people. So they're doing an excellent job. The
investigation is still ongoing, still viifying vaccination status of folks,
but one of our potential concerns and why we shared
information about where this case was is we know that
there can be unknown exposures, and so we shared information
on our website. Pueblo is sharing this information that this

(04:43):
person did work in the Southwest Delian Cafe on several
days in mid March, so there was potential for exposure there,
and then also at a clinic on March twenty second
in Pueblo as well.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
I understand that measles is contracting, it is not necessarily uncommon,
but I was under the understanding that essentially that it
was eradicated. Why is it making, for lack of a
better term, what looks like to be a comeback.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yeah, So in Colorado, you know, I would say we
see zero, won maybe two measles cases a year. As
you said, the last time we saw a case in
the state was December of twenty twenty three, So it
is certainly not common for us to have measles cases.
In fact, the last time we had a measled outbreak,
you know, ten with ten or more cases, was actually

(05:31):
the mid nineties. So this is not an infection that
we are seeing commonly, and certainly not an infection that
we see large outbreaks. So what is happening in Texas
and New Mexico right now is certainly unprecedented.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Doctor hurleyhy with the minute we have left, what should
listeners do if they feel like they have come in contact,
they believe they could have it, or they want more
information on this.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, so important to stress that we do not believe
that this person traveled outside of Pueblo County while they
were in SEC so that is really important to know.
But certainly folks should be on the lookout for symptoms,
especially if they are unvaccinated and did have exposures to
this case that they know of, or we're in those
locations that we are sharing. And the symptoms that typically

(06:15):
occur with measles, it's really first a pretty non specific
respiratory in section, so common things you think of coughs,
runny nose, pink or red eyes, and then it's really
not until three to five days later that that rash
starts on the face and descend. So watching for those symptoms.
Calling your healthcare provider ahead of time so that you
don't expose anyone is really the best thing to do.

(06:37):
If you're worried you may have been exposed and you
could be

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Sick with Measles State Epidemiologist, doctor Rachel Hurley, Hey, thank you.