Measles cases jump to 46 in eight southwest counties as new Kansas law restricts health officials

Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group, spoke recently at a University of Kansas Health System panel, addressing concerns about the measles outbreak. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from KU Health video)

By Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — New legislation may make it more difficult for public health officials to manage a measles outbreak, which has increased by nine cases.

Measles cases in Kansas jumped from 37 to 46 over the past week, with all cases located in southwest counties, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment data released Wednesday morning.

KDHE spokeswoman Jill Bronaugh said the state agency is working with local health departments to communicate about measles and to educate the public.

But the Legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 29 may complicate the ability of local health officials to react to the increasing number of measles cases. This bill removed the ability of local health officials to ban public gatherings during infectious disease outbreaks and added the expectation that health officials show probable cause if they quarantine or isolate individuals during an outbreak.

The bill says those who are quarantined can file a civil lawsuit that must be heard within 72 hours if they believe the decision was unjust. Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill, but the Republican-led Legislature overturned her veto.

“Taking away the authority of public health officials to prohibit public gatherings and issue quarantines, when necessary, contradicts effective, evidence-based health intervention advice, but we will do all we can to protect the health of the communities we are entrusted to serve,” Bronaugh said.

Sen. Bill Clifford, a Republican ophthalmologist from Garden City, expressed concern during hearings that not all cases of measles are being reported.

“This weekend I spoke to several pediatricians. In an affected family, one member is going in,” he said, speaking at a time when there were 31 reported measles cases. “In fact, they won’t allow them in the pediatric clinic. We have well babies there and we don’t want to infect them. That one family member is the signal case of what’s going on in the family, and the families are not coming in.”

Latest data

KDHE updated its measles dashboard Wednesday morning to highlight the number of cases and the affected counties: Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Haskell, Kiowa, Morton and Stevens. In addition, it shows vaccination data, which indicates that 39 people with measles were unvaccinated, one did not have age-appropriate vaccinations, three did not have verified vaccination status and three were age-appropriately vaccinated.

One person has been hospitalized.

Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System, said fully vaccinated people can get the disease, but typically have fewer complications and overall less severity of illness. With one dose of the vaccine, people have 93% protection from measles, and after two doses, 97% protection, he said.

How we got here

Measles was considered eliminated in 2000 but has since popped up throughout the United States, typically in unvaccinated communities. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group, joined a panel of University of Kansas Health System experts to talk about how we got to where we are today and to address vaccine skepticism.

Poland explained what it means to eliminate a disease.

“You need a robust surveillance system. You need to know are you seeing cases, and are they measles,” he said. “Then what you have to have is documentation of interruption of indigenous transmission for at least 12 months. We are very likely going to lose that, and that is a real shame because achieving that in 2000 was a monumental public health achievement.”

Indigenous transmission refers to the spread of a disease within a population and is not coming from contact that began with someone outside the community, such as during a trip abroad.

Side effects of vaccination

Poland said the vaccine that has been available since 1968 is “well documented to be protective and to have minimal side effects.”

“It always bothers me when people say, ‘Well, isn’t natural immunity better.’ Before there was a measles vaccine in the U.S., essentially every child got it, so three to four million people a year. Forty-eight thousand of those kids ended up sick enough that they were hospitalized, 1,000 of them developed encephalitis, and 500 of them on average each year died. That’s what natural immunity gets you,” Poland said.

Side effects of the vaccine are a few cases of low platelets, transient fever and possibly a rash, he said.

No known deaths related to the MMR vaccine given to healthy people have been reported, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Rare cases of deaths from vaccine side effects among children are connected to those who are immune compromised, and it is recommended they not get the vaccine.

Distrust of science

Unfortunately, Hawkinson said, times have changed in terms of how much people listen to medical professionals and how they assess scientific research. Right now is different than in 2019, when the most recent measles outbreak occurred.

“There are major points and reasons why this is much different,” he said. “I think it is in the context of extreme disinformation and misinformation and mistrust of medicine and public health. Mistrust of science. We have to get back to knowing and understanding what is true, but it is just so difficult out there.”

Hawkinson pointed to an overall decreased willingness to listen to and adhere to medical guidance and recommendations.

“We don’t do that when we listen to our plumbers, our mechanics, our lawyers,” he said.

And, he said, overall vaccination rates have declined.

“Many areas locally here in Kansas and Missouri are down to 90% (of people vaccinated),” he said. “You will only see more patients developing this disease and, unfortunately, the complications that come along with it.”

This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.