Tests are in progress to see if two people on the North Olympic Peninsula have measles.
Laboratory testing could determine whether Clallam County has its fifth case of measles this year or if the symptoms seen in a preschool child were caused by a recent vaccination, according to Iva Burks, Clallam County Department of Health and Human Services director.
Patient specimens from the possible fifth patient in Clallam County were taken Monday and sent overnight to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for expedited special testing that can distinguish actual measles from symptoms caused by vaccination.
A test has been done of one person in Jefferson County, with results from the state lab expected soon, said Lisa McKenzie, communicable disease program coordinator.
A test done last week was negative, McKenzie said.
Both county public health departments are following quarantine procedures as if they were measles cases to protect the community if tests verify the illness.
Burks said privacy regulations precluded her from identifying the child’s gender or place of residence other than within Clallam County.
McKenzie said the department does not give information about age or gender when only a test has been done.
The last confirmed case of measles in Clallam County was in the third week of February. No cases have been confirmed in Jefferson County.
Seven cases have been confirmed in Washington state. Two were in Grays Harbor County and one in Whatcom County.
The CDC’s latest report is that 170 people from 17 states and the District of Columbia were diagnosed with measles between Jan. 1 and Feb. 27.
The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine occasionally causes mild symptoms including fever, swelling of the glands in the neck or cheeks, or a mild rash, according to Clallam public health officials.
Burks could not predict when the results would be known, but the department’s staff is working with the child’s family on quarantine.
Meanwhile, the measles vaccine is available at vaccination clinics.
“Vaccination remains the best protection against measles, which can be very serious,” said Dr. Jeanette Stehr-Green, interim health officer in Clallam County.
“Regardless of how the testing comes out on this most recent situation, we know that measles can pass through our community at any time,” she said.
Unless the preschool child has actual measles, Burks said, the window of contagion from the four earlier confirmed cases in Clallam County will close April 6.
It opened after an adult man was diagnosed Feb. 1 and hospitalized at Olympic Medical Center. Since then, a kindergarten student, another man and the 14-year-old sibling of the kindergartner have been diagnosed with measles.
Measles is highly contagious even before the rash starts and spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes.
Children should be vaccinated with two doses of MMR vaccine, with the first dose between 12 and 15 months and the second at 4 to 6 years old.
Adults who have not had measles and were born after 1957 should have at least one measles vaccination; some people need two.
A no-cost clinic will be offered from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. today and next Thursday, March 12, at Health and Human Services’ Public Health Section, 111 E. Third St., Port Angeles.
Call 360-417-2274 for an appointment. Walk-ins will be seen but could face a waiting time.
Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics personnel will immunize people at no cost at Project Homeless Connect from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Also Friday, a no-cost clinic is planned in Forks at the Bogachiel Medical Clinic, 390 Founders Way. The clinic will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Another immunization clinic is planned from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday in Room J-47 at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles.
In Port Townsend, clinics are at the Jefferson County Public Health Clinic at 615 Sheridan St. and Jefferson Healthcare hospital’s primary care clinic at 915 Sheridan St.
The county clinic operates from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and offers the MMR vaccine on a walk-in basis.
Jefferson Healthcare’s clinic is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Vaccinations aren’t available for walk-ins. People must schedule them by calling 360-379-8031.
The vaccine is free to children, but both the public health and hospital clinic charge an administrative fee billable to insurance.
For more Clallam County information, see http://tinyurl.com/PDN-measlesalerts.
For more in Jefferson County, visit www.jeffersoncountypublichealth.org.
