SACRAMENTO (KRON) — With sixteen measles cases confirmed in California, the state Department of Public Health sent out a health alert Friday to doctors across the state.
“We want to be sure to remind providers that people can transmit measles before they’re sick, so in a situation like the one we’re having, asking people who come in with symptoms that might be measles, it’s just important to have measles in front of mind and to ask about travel and contact with travelers,” said Karen Smith, representative with the California Department of Public Health.
Smith says California typically sees about 25 measles cases a year.
So far most of the state’s cases are in Northern California.
“They are generally always associated with returning travelers who were unvaccinated or undervaccinated,” Smith said. “The same thing is true this year although we do have slightly more cases than we had in the past few years.”
Smith says the majority of the recently confirmed cases come from just a few travelers.
“The biggest concern for us is the more people that come in to California with measles, the more likely they’ll transmit in the period of time before they’re sick,” she said.
Smith says California is not in a measles emergency the way Washington and New York are.
The department expects to see slightly more measles cases this year.
Smith says vaccines are the single best protection society has against measles.
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