The Measles Virus Is invading Snohomish County

A deadly virus has hit Snohomish County and Snohomish County Health District workers are in emergency mode right now. The bad news is it's the measles virus, probably the most contagious virus in the world. The good news is health workers know how to fight it. 

According to Seattletimes.com,
‘The CDC told the state Department of Health that a family from South Carolina had visited while infectious with measles — and exposed people at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The following day, South Carolina’s health department learned the family had mostly spent time in Snohomish County. 
The state updated Snohomish County health officials later that day.’ 

It's not impossible, but measles is a tough disease to track. It takes anywhere from 7 to 21 days for the measles virus to present symptoms, But it becomes contagious in four to five days, so somebody infected with the measles won't even know for several days while they are out in the world infecting their friends and neighbors. 

What you need to know

Now if you've been vaccinated for measles, typically two shots will give you about 97 percent protection against infection. (Pretty good odds.) If you know that you've been exposed to the measles virus, it's not too late; you can get “postexposure protection”. That would be a dose of MMR vaccine. It will help to prevent infection and also reduce the effects of the disease, but the important thing is you need that vaccine within 72 hours of you being exposed. 

It's not an easy process for teams to reach out to people who potentially might have been infected with the measles, so time is of the essence. Measles spreads incredibly fast. The effort to Curb the spread of measles is very similar to the effort that had to go into COVID-19. The difference is that we know how to deal with this infection.