NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Officials declare measles outbreak in Pacific Northwest over
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
PORTLAND — A mea-
sles outbreak that sickened
more than 70 people, mostly
children, in the Pacific
Northwest is finally over
even as the total number of
cases nationwide continues
to spike to near-record lev-
els, officials said Monday.
Six weeks have passed
without a new infection
in southwest Washington
state, where the outbreak
began on Jan. 3, said Dr.
Alan Melnick, head of the
Clark County public health
department. A total of 71
people were infected — a
tally that does not include a
handful of cases in Portland
and Seattle that were linked
to the outbreak’s epicenter.
The good news from the
Pacific Northwest comes as
authorities elsewhere strug-
gled with the most measles
cases in the U.S. since 1994.
Across the country, 704
cases have been reported
in 22 states as of Monday,
according to the U.S. Cen-
ters for Disease Control and
Prevention. A large outbreak
in the New York City area
has stymied public health
officials and more than 350
students at two major Cali-
fornia universities remained
quarantined after possible
exposure, down from 800
students last week.
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File
In this Feb. 13, 2019, file photo, a health care worker prepares syringes, including a vaccine
for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), for a child’s inoculations at the International Com-
munity Health Services in Seattle.
traveled from the Ukraine
to the U.S. Authorities could
not determine, however, that
the child was the source of
the outbreak.
It spread quickly among
unvaccinated
children:
Ninety-three percent of
the cases were in those
under age 18 and 86 per-
cent of patients were unvac-
cinated, while 14 percent
had had just one dose of a
two-dose series of shots or
didn’t know their vaccina-
tion status. One person was
hospitalized.
The outbreak cost nearly
“We’re grateful to see
this outbreak come to an end
without any deaths or seri-
ous complications,” Melnick
said. “But as long as mea-
sles exists elsewhere in the
world and people continue
travel, we’re at risk of seeing
another outbreak. We must
improve our immunization
rates to prevent future out-
breaks and keep our chil-
dren and other vulnerable
people safe.”
In Washington state, the
outbreak began four months
ago when measles was con-
firmed in a child who had
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
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cloudy
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pleasant
$1 million and 19,000 hours
of staffing time to con-
tain and affected 53 public
places, including schools,
hospitals, airports, stores
and restaurants in both
Washington and Oregon,
officials said.
Melnick said during
the outbreak, public health
authorities struggling to
contain its spread identi-
fied and contacted more
than 4,100 people who were
exposed to the viral illness
and made daily monitoring
phone calls to more than 800
people considered suscepti-
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OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
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PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
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Olympia
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Kennewick Walla Walla
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Lewiston
69/38
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Astoria
63/43
Pullman
Yakima 66/38
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Portland
Hermiston
71/43
The Dalles 67/36
Salem
Corvallis
68/39
La Grande
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Records
55/27
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
68/39
55/28
55/27
Ontario
63/33
Caldwell
Burns
0.00"
0.29"
0.85"
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4.05"
3.96"
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
71/40
Wed.
NNE 4-8
NNW 6-12
in a supplemental lawsuit
filed in late March against
the Interior Department,
U.S. Bureau of Land Man-
agement and the U.S. For-
est Service say the plan
weakens an earlier ver-
sion put forward by the
Barack Obama adminis-
tration in 2015. The groups
also sued in 2016 contend-
ing the Obama plan didn’t
do enough to protect sage
grouse — a chicken-sized
bird that relies on sagebrush.
The groups say the plan
put forward by Trump weak-
ens protections further. Last
week, they asked a judge
to block the Trump admin-
istration plan altogether in
Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Col-
orado, Nevada, California
and Oregon.
Idaho officials have long
argued that the plan the state
put forward in 2015 was
significantly altered at the
last minute by the Obama
administration, which added
new protections to key sage
grouse areas.
The 2015 sage grouse
plans are widely considered
to have stopped the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service from
listing sage grouse under
the Endangered Species Act.
CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely
regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
WINDS (in mph)
60/30
56/22
BOISE, Idaho — Two
states are seeking to inter-
vene on the side of the fed-
eral government after four
conservation groups asked
a judge to immediately halt
drilling, mining and other
activities to protect habitat
for a ground-dwelling bird
in seven Western states.
Idaho and Utah filed
documents in U.S. District
Court late last week seeking
to defend a plan put forward
by President Donald Trump
in mid-March.
The conservation groups
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Albany
69/36
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through 3 p.m. yest.
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Pendleton 52/25
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24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
60/35
68/38
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31°
66°
42°
91° (1926) 25° (1907)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
66/38
Aberdeen
57/35
63/41
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
66/43
ble to contracting measles.
The outbreak prompted
a public conversation in
both Washington and Ore-
gon about routine childhood
vaccines.
The two adjoining states
have some of the nation’s
highest statewide vaccine
exemption rates, driven in
part by low vaccination lev-
els in scattered communi-
ties and at some private and
alternative schools.
Four percent of Washing-
ton secondary school stu-
dents have non-medical vac-
cine exemptions. In Oregon,
Idaho, Utah seek to defend
Trump drilling plan lawsuit
Associated Press
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
In this Jan. 30, 2019, file pho-
to, a sign warning patients
and visitors of a measles
outbreak is shown posted at
The Vancouver Clinic in Van-
couver, Wash. Officials in the
Pacific Northwest say a mea-
sles outbreak that sickened
multiple people is over.
which has a similar law, 7.5
percent of kindergarteners
in 2018 were missing shots
for non-medical reasons.
Numerous studies have
shown vaccines do not cause
autism — a common reason
cited by those who don’t
want their kids immunized.
In Washington, lawmak-
ers sent a bill to Gov. Jay
Inslee’s desk that would
tighten up exemption rules
for the mumps, measles
and rubella shots. In Ore-
gon, lawmakers will vote to
remove a families’ ability to
opt out of required school
vaccinations for personal,
philosophical or religious
reasons.
Before mass vaccina-
tion, 400 to 500 people in
the U.S. died of the measles
every year. Serious com-
plications include brain
swelling that can cause
blindness or deafness and
pneumonia.
Early symptoms include
a fever, runny nose and
malaise, followed by a rash
that starts around the head
and moves down the body.
Patients are contagious four
days before and four days
after getting the rash.
Nine out of 10 unvac-
cinated people who are
exposed will get the disease.
Someone who has no immu-
nity can get sick up to three
weeks after they have been
exposed to the virus.
St. Anthony Provider Spotligh t
WSW 8-16
WSW 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
58/27
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:45 a.m.
8:01 p.m.
4:23 a.m.
3:40 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
May 4
May 11
May 18
May 26
Dr Reddy is
now accepting
new patients.
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
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NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
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Education: Unity St Mary’s Campus,
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Insurance Accepted: Most major
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