Officials with the Arizona Department of Health Services announced Saturday an additional two confirmed measles cases, both in Pinal County, bringing the outbreak total to 22.
The potential exposure areas include a number of places in Coolidge to include:
- Sunday, June, 26, 2016
- Circle K, 495 S Arizona Blvd, Coolidge, AZ 85128, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
- Walmart, 1695 N Arizona Blvd, Coolidge, AZ 85128, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.
- Dollar Tree, 1455 N Arizona Blvd, Coolidge, AZ 85228, from 1 to 4 p.m.
- Saturday, June, 25, 2016
- Circle K, 495 S Arizona Blvd, Coolidge, AZ 85128, from 7:30 to 11 a.m.
- Walmart, 1695 N Arizona Blvd, Coolidge, AZ 85128, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Thursday, June, 23, 2016
- Safeway, 1449 N Arizona Blvd, Coolidge, AZ 85128, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, June, 22, 2016
- Circle K, 495 S Arizona Blvd, Coolidge, AZ 85128, from 8 to 11a.m.
The outbreak is directly linked with the private detention facility in Eloy and according to a Arizona Public Media report last week, staff at the detention center are fueling the outbreak:
When measles cases started surfacing at the Eloy detention center in the spring, Pinal County health officials made two requests, Health Director Thomas Schryer said.
“One was for the inmates or detainees to become vaccinated,” Schryer said. “They all agreed to do that so they are immune and are not passing the disease amongst each other.
“The other was for the staff to either be vaccinated or provide proof of immunity,” he said. “However probably about 40 percent of the staff have not done that, and what we’re seeing today and the reason we’re seeing cases out of that facility is because the staff are passing measles amongst each other, and unfortunately they’re going out into the community, so we expect to see more cases from those exposures.”
He said workers are refusing vaccination requests and employers are trying to convince them otherwise.
Related:
- Puerto Rico Zika update: 225 additional cases reported in past week
- Candida auris: Emerging fungal pathogen in England
- Sri Lanka dengue tally tops 20,000 for 2016
