North Dakota has not had a reported case of measles since 2011…
“And in that scenario, it was a single case of measles that was reported to North Dakota. Like a travel, imported case and it didn’t spread beyond that single person.”
Danni Pinnick is Immunization Surveillance Coordinator with the Department of Health and Human Services. She says the outbreak of measles in west Texas and eastern New Mexico have not only gained a lot of attention; the outbreak is causing concern – and rightly so…
“There’s maybe a tendency to believe that it’s a mild disease because obviously everybody alive today who had measles survived it. But what we see with measles – even when healthcare is available to people – there’s deaths in about one in every 500-people.”
Pinnick says it’s hard to gauge the rate of vaccination among adults. But with measles being part of the basic childhood vaccines current figures show a number that is actually lower than what officials would like to see…
“…We know the 18 to 35-month old immunization rate for measles is around 80-81% over the last several quarters.”
Pinnick says most adults born after 1957 should have one dose of measles vaccination in their records.
“…And if they can’t find a child vaccination record that would represent they had at least one dose of M-M-R, they should maybe contact their doctor or local health unit.”