Health officials said a child was infectious while attending an afternoon service at Slavic Christian Church Awakening in Mukilteo on Sunday, Jan. 18.
MUKILTEO, Wash. — Snohomish County health officials have confirmed three additional measles cases, bringing the county’s total to six since an outbreak was declared earlier this month.
The most recent case was confirmed Tuesday in an unvaccinated child. Health officials said the child was infectious while attending an afternoon service at Slavic Christian Church Awakening in Mukilteo on Sunday, Jan. 18.
Anyone who attended the service between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. may have been exposed to the highly contagious virus. People born before 1957 or those who have received two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are considered immune, according to the Snohomish County Health Department.
Earlier this month, health officials confirmed three measles cases in local children who were exposed to a contagious family visiting from South Carolina. Those cases met the definition of an outbreak, signaling that measles was spreading locally.
Two additional cases were diagnosed after the outbreak was announced. Those cases involved unvaccinated children in a family already isolating due to a positive measles case in a sibling. Health officials said no new public exposure sites were linked to those infections and the general public was not considered at risk.
“Most people in our county have immunity to measles through vaccination, so the risk to the general public is low,” said Dr. James Lewis, the county health officer. “The next two to three weeks could be telling on where this outbreak is going to go. Now is the time to find out your immunization status and get up to date on vaccinations.”
The largest active measles outbreak in the United States remains in South Carolina, where nearly 800 cases have been reported since October, according to state health officials.
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