PORT ANGELES — A tent has been set up at Olympic Medical Center to screen potential new measles cases, and four individuals are being tested for the virus — three in Clallam County and one in Jefferson County, according to public health officials.
The tent at the hospital is a new measure to prevent the spread of measles to hospital patients, visitors and staff in the event someone with the virus came to the hospital, said Dr. Tom Locke, public health officer for Clallam and Jefferson counties.
A sign posted at the hospital’s main entrance Monday directed anyone with measles symptoms to go to the emergency room’s west entrance and phone 360-417-7381 or, lacking a cell phone, wave at the door for a medical attendant’s assistance.
The yellow medical tent with chairs, heaters and a stainless steel medical table was set up in the parking lot outside of the west entrance.
Olympic Medical Center administrators were not available for comment Monday due to the Presidents’ Day holiday.
The tent is an emergency structure already owned by the hospital and can be used as a location where anyone with measles can be evaluated without exposing additional people to the virus, Locke said.
Health authorities caution people who think they or their children may have measles to call ahead to their health care providers and not to visit a doctor’s office, clinic or emergency room unannounced.
People who might have measles will be isolated and examined before they are treated and sent home or hospitalized.
The precaution is designed to prevent the spread of disease to people in waiting rooms.
Officials at Forks Community Hospital and Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend were also unavailable Monday to comment on whether similar plans exist at those hospitals.
The four people now being tested are not thought likely to have the disease, and they have not had known contact with either of the two individuals in Clallam County who have confirmed diagnoses, Locke said.
“We are treating all rash illnesses as a measles potential,” he said and noted that there are several viruses that produce rashes.
Locke said test results for the four, whose cities of residence were not available Monday, were expected to be available late this afternoon.
As of Sunday, two people in Clallam County had been confirmed as having the measles virus. No cases have been confirmed in Jefferson County.
The first case was a 52-year-old man who was hospitalized Feb. 1 and has since recovered.
It was not known how he contracted the virus, which was identified as a strain common to Asia and the Philippines and not the same as the current outbreak associated with Disneyland, which has been linked to 125 cases in 17 states.
A 5-year-old girl who attended kindergarten at Olympic Christian School at 43 O’Brien Road in Port Angeles was diagnosed with measles after being examined at Peninsula Children’s Clinic last Wednesday.
She is currently quarantined at her Port Angeles home.
The girl was known to have had contact with the 52-year-old man, but the nature of the contact has not been released.
Those who may have been exposed via the girl include patients at the children’s clinic at 902 Caroline St. last Wednesday or at the school Feb. 6.
Olympic Christian School students who can’t prove immunity to measles are under quarantine at home until Feb. 27 — 21 days after their possible exposure.
If more cases surface, health authorities would expect to see them by the middle of the week or late this week, Locke said.
Most people develop measles within 10 days of exposure, but the incubation period can be as long as three weeks, he said.
The final day officials expect they may see cases of measles contracted from the man — who visited Clallam and Kings county locations while contagious — would be Feb. 22, and the last day for those who might have contracted it from the girl would be March 4.
For more information on measles, visit http://tinyurl.com/PDN-CDCmeasles.
_______
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach and reporter James Casey contributed to this report.
