No new cases of measles have emerged in Oregon or Southwest Washington over the last few days.
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
The measles outbreak is showing signs of slowing down.
In Clark County the number of measles cases has leveled off at 53. And public health officials haven’t identified any new locations where people may have been exposed.
Doctor Richard Leman with the Oregon Health Authority said Oregon has only seen four cases.
“Fortunately it does sound as though public health efforts are working," said Leman. "We are not having large numbers of new exposures. And that may help to limit the number of cases going forward.”
He said people who know they’ve contracted measles have done a good job of not spreading it. He credits local public health agencies, like Clark County, for having done a good job of getting them to stay indoors and not visiting public places or health clinics — without prior notification.
So far, the vast majority of cases have been seen among children and teenagers who haven’t been immunized.
Facebook said in a statement Thursday that it may remove, reduce and demote anti-vaccination content to combat the spread of false information. A request to do something has been sent to Google by politicians.
The World Health Organization estimates there were three times more measles cases in Europe last year, than the year before. Outbreaks have also been reported in Madagascar and the Philippines.
The WHO said before the introduction of a measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.
The WHO said approximately 110,000 people died from measles in 2017. Most of them were children under the age of five.