In an effort to combat the spread of the measles virus, the North Central Ohio Measles Unified Command held a meeting on Wednesday afternoon at Richland Public Health. Health Educator and Communications Specialist Reed Richmond invited local media to attend in order to take a bit of mystery out of the process for the community.
As the measles virus spreads, so has the number of counties involved in the North Central Ohio Measles Unified Command. Wednesday’s meeting included representatives from nine affected counties. Tuscarawas county has inquired and may become involved, though that county has, as yet, seen no confirmed measles cases.
Cases reported to date include: Ashland, 44; Coshocton, 29; Crawford, 1; Highland, 1; Holmes, 41; Knox, 188; Richland, 19; Stark, 6; and Wayne, 1.
The Command was set up to allow better communication and cooperation between affected counties. The unified objectives include: protecting the general population by preventing the spread of measles through preventative or containment measures; conducting public surveillance, detection, and epidemiological investigations with the affected and neighboring jurisdiction; coordinating and conducting vaccination clinics within the impacted community; and educating the general public regarding the current public health hazards, current response efforts, and preventative health information.
Public surveillance may include door to door visits in affected communities, especially the heavily hit Amish community.
The meeting, held via conference call, was directed by Richland County Health Commissioner Martin Tremmel.The call included public health representatives from the affected counties, as well as representatives from county Emergency Management Agencies (EMA), the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), and hospital coordinators. Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were unavailable for this call.
Representatives from Richland Public Health included Richmond, Public Health Emergency Planner Susan McFarren, Director of Nursing Amy Schmidt, Epidemiologist Mary Derr, as well as a clerical specialist.
Each county reported the number of suspected and confirmed cases, as well as information regarding vaccinations administered and planned clinics.
An emergency declaration was discussed. The declaration, noted Tremmel, would be similar to the state of emergency declared in natural disasters and would acquire much needed funding to bolster those counties hard hit by the measles outbreak.
Counties with large groups of migrant workers expressed concern for the outbreak spreading to the Hispanic population, who would then spread the virus further during travel. Information about the virus, translated to Spanish, as well as vaccination clinics are planned to address the issue.
A dropbox of all the information is available to those within the command, to allow better sharing and less redundancy.
“These counties have collaborated remarkably well together,” said Tremmel.
Public health officials stress that immunization is the key to stopping this outbreak before it reaches epidemic proportions. Tremmel added that if it weren’t for public health intervention, the outbreak could have been five or ten times as large as it is currently.
The group hopes to build a “firewall” around the outbreak through shared resources. Reed noted that it would be ideal to have that in place before the beginning of county fairs.
With schools out for the summer, health officials had hoped to see the spread of the virus slow. However, summer travel and large public events attended by unvaccinated individuals may see the numbers of those infected on the rise.
“This is one of the most highly contagious viruses out there,” said Derr.
Richland Public Health also noted that, though mumps has recently seen a resurgence, it is treated with the same vaccine as measles. Therefore, individuals receiving the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccination will help decrease the spread of the viruses.
Tremmel noted that Ohio has the largest measles outbreak in the United States and, if not addressed properly, measles may once again be an issue for the entire country.
