The cost of the measles epidemic in Washington exceeds $ 1 million

The cost of the measles outbreak in Washington has exceeded one million dollars, while more than 200 staff members from the state's health department and Clark County are focusing their efforts on the disease.

On Tuesday, there were 63 confirmed cases of measles in Clark County, including 44 in children under 10, according to the County Public Health Department, which is also investigating a suspected case. A single case has also been reported in King County, bringing to 64 the total number of people nationwide, according to the State Department of Health (DOH).

The Department of Health has spent about $ 614,000 on staff and supplies as of Tuesday, in addition to about $ 115,000 in other non-budgeted expenditures, according to Dr. Scott Lindquist, state epidemiologist, who said: Expects the total response to cost more than $ 1 million. "

At the same time, Clark County Public Health spent about $ 500,000 to deal with the measles epidemic, bringing the total to more than $ 1 million across the state, said Dr. Alan Melnick, director of public health of the county.

"It is taxpayer money for something that could have been completely, totally avoidable in the first place," he told The Seattle Times.

According to Lindquist, out of a total staffing of about 1,900 people, 166 state health department staff, working about 8,700 hours, have already been badigned to the measles outbreak. Some are epidemiologists specializing in communicable diseases, which typically focus on issues such as hepatitis and daily foodborne illness outbreaks – tasks that have been largely put on the back burner.

"This will slow down everything else," said Lindquist, noting that the usual work is taken care of by the remaining staff or is set aside. "The current public health infrastructure is really threatened by such events."

According to Lindquist, every staff member at the Ministry of Health spends about two weeks at a time in Clark County, which means that the state has to pay for hotel rooms, their daily costs and their travels. .

According to Clark Melnick, the Clark County Public Health Department has about 40 to 50 employees working on measles at any given time.

Epidemiological staff, including those working on badually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis, are being forced to focus more on measles, as well as environmental health staff, some of whom are inspecting restaurants. Melnick says restaurants are always safe to eat because these inspections will always be done, but they could be done more slowly.

Two more Epidemic Intelligence Officers, who are responsible for epidemic investigations and appointed by the Federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were due to return to Clark County on Wednesday. The volunteers of the medical reserve corps have also devoted their time to ongoing efforts.

The Emergency Operations Center of the State Military Department, which coordinates resources for the support of the Ministry of Health, has recruited an incident management team consisting of five specialists in medical specialties North Dakota, who ended his 19-day visit to Washington on Monday with two disease investigators. of Idaho, present from February 2 to Sunday, according to Robert Ezelle, director of the department 's Emergency Management Division.

The North Dakota team cost the state a little over $ 24,000, while the investigators in Idaho cost just over $ 8,000, according to Ezelle.

As the epidemic has recently slowed down, Ezelle said that it was not expected to bring more resources to Washington from other states.

Measles has spread since the beginning of the year mainly in unvaccinated children, with 55 of 63 cases confirmed in Clark County in non-immunized patients. Clark County, which includes Vancouver, has unusually high vaccine exemption rates for school-aged children.

While the non-medical exemption rate for kindergarten enrollment for the 2017-2018 school year was about 2% nationally, according to the CDC, Washington had a exemption rate based on 4% philosophical, personal or religious grounds. In comparison, Clark County had a 6.7% exemption rate, according to data from the state's health services.

In the hope of reducing the risk of epidemics, Olympia lawmakers have proposed two measures to strengthen the personal or philosophical exemption used to exempt children from the vaccines needed for them. entrance to the school. A bill pbaded in the House would eliminate any objections to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, while a Senate bill, submitted to a Wednesday hearing in Olympia, aims to remove the drug. 39; personal exemption of all necessary vaccinations to go to school or licensed day center.

Tara Lee, a Jay Inslee government spokesman, said there was no end date for the state of emergency that he had declared on 25 January, which allows Washington to obtain resources from other states.

"We will keep it as long as necessary," Lee said. Lindquist, from the state of DOH, says he is "cautiously optimistic" about slowing the resurgence, but it is too early to predict.

Melnick, from Clark County, states that the outbreak will only be taken into account after 42 days, or two complete incubation periods, with no new cases.

"It could easily last another month or two," he said. "Or even beyond."