Measles

Measles is a vaccine-preventable disease that starts with fever, runny nose, cough, red eyes, and sore throat. It’s followed by a rash that spreads over the body. Measles is highly contagious and spreads through coughing and sneezing. Make sure you and your child are protected with measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

News Releases - Current Measles Information for Deschutes County

Sunday, February 10th was the final day of the 21-day incubation period for the Deschutes County measles exposures (1/19/2019 and 1/20/2019). At this time, we have no suspect or known measles cases in Central Oregon. We will continue to keep our website current as the outbreak in Washington State continues.

News Release - 1/30/19: Health officials confirm measles exposure in Deschutes County
News Release - 1/28/19: Health officials investigating potential measles exposure in Deschutes County

For information on Clark County's measles outbreak, visit here.

Information for Healthcare Providers

If you are a healthcare provider, click here for resources.

Measles Information Sheets

Measles Information Sheet (English): https://bit.ly/2Ut5vrO
Measles Information Sheet (Spanish) : https://bit.ly/2MGYnFv

Symptoms

Anyone who has been exposed and believes they have symptoms of measles should first call their health care provider or urgent care by telephone to avoid exposing others.

The symptoms of measles generally appear about seven to 14 days after a person is infected. Measles typically begins with:

high fever,
cough,
runny nose (coryza), and
red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis).

Two or three days after symptoms begin, tiny white spots (Koplik spots) may appear inside the mouth.

Three to five days after symptoms begin, a rash breaks out. It usually begins as flat red spots that appear on the face at the hairline and spread downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs, and feet. Small raised bumps may also appear on top of the flat red spots. The spots may become joined together as they spread from the head to the rest of the body. When the rash appears, a person’s fever may spike to more than 104° Fahrenheit.

After a few days, the fever subsides and the rash fades.

Transmission

Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing.

Measles virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed. If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses, or mouths, they can become infected. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.

Infected people can spread measles to others from four days before through four days after the rash appears.

Protect Your Child From Measles

You have the power to protect your child against measles with a safe and effective vaccine. The best protection against measles is measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. MMR vaccine provides long-lasting protection against all strains of measles. Your child needs two doses of MMR vaccine for best protection:

The first dose at 12 through 15 months of age
The second dose 4 through 6 years of age

If your family is traveling overseas, the vaccine recommendations are a little different:

If your baby is 6 through 11 months old, he or she should receive 1 dose of MMR vaccine before leaving.
If your child is 12 months of age or older, he or she will need 2 doses of MMR vaccine (separated by at least 28 days) before departure.