(Bloomberg) — Health officials in three Arizona counties said hundreds of people may have been exposed to the highly contagious measles virus, three days before thousands of sports fans pour into the state for the Super Bowl.
The National Football League championship game will be held in Maricopa County at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale on Feb. 1. Officials there, and in Pinal and Gila counties, are looking for people who have been to hospitals, grocery stores and a post office where infected residents visited.
"Measles is wildly infectious, which is why it is so important that we identify cases quickly and do our best to stop the spread early on," Bob England, director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said in a statement. "That means keeping unvaccinated people who have been exposed to the disease away from others."
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Arizona has reported eight cases so far, two in Maricopa County. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to man, with each original patient able to infect many others if they aren't vaccinated. Maricopa health workers are trying to track down 195 people, mostly children, Jeanene Fowler, a spokeswoman for the county health department said in an e-mail Thursday.
The virus can linger in the air or on surfaces for hours, and health officials are trying to track down those exposed. Maricopa's county health department said that people who have potentially been exposed and aren't fully vaccinated should stay at home for 21 days. People who may have been exposed should wear a mask if they need to go out in public, the department said in a Jan. 27 statement.
Disney outbreak
The Arizona cases are linked to a California outbreak where officials have identified 79 cases of the disease, which started in Anaheim's Disneyland amusement park. Cases linked to the outbreak have also been found in Mexico, Utah, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Michigan and Nebraska, according to the California Department of Public Health.
The spread of the outbreak has been made worse, in part, by a growing failure to vaccinate. Arizona allows vaccination exemptions for children entering public schools for religious reasons as well as what's known as a philosophical exemption, where parents can choose not to vaccinate and still send their children to school.
While most states permit religious exemptions, just 19 states give philosophical exemptions, including Arizona and California, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The outbreak is the first in Arizona since 2008, according to the state's Department of Health Services.
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