The measles outbreak that state health officials traced to Disneyland and affected 14 in San Diego County, was declared over Friday.
"We are pleased this outbreak is over, but caution that measles can be reintroduced in California at any time when an infected person brings it to the state," according to state health officer Dr. Karen Smith, director of the California Department of Public Health. "The best defense for protection against the highly infectious measles is vaccination."
The last case of measles was confirmed March 2, prompting officials to set Friday as the date when the outbreak was considered over if there are no new cases reported. Across California, 131 were infected with the virus.
Since Feb. 27, only three new cases were reported in the state. The most recent case was out of Los Angeles County, bringing the total there to 28, with two in Long Beach and four in Pasadena, where they have their own health departments.
Orange County stands at 35 cases and Riverside County has had eight cases. San Bernardino County has a dozen.
Of the California cases, 40 were traced back to visitors or workers at Disneyland between Dec. 17-20, according to the state. In 30 cases, measles was passed on from someone in the house or another close relation, officials said.
Eleven people contracted the disease in a community setting such as an emergency room where someone was seeking treatment for measles, according to the state.
State officials said this morning that of the patients the state has vaccination records for, 56 did not get shots and 25 had one or more doses of the MMR vaccine, according to the state.
Dr. Wilma Wooten, public health officer for San Diego County, said the outbreak could have been prevented if more people were vaccinated.
"The measles vaccine is one of the most effective immunizations we have these days," Wooten said. "Immunized people can expect up to 97 percent protection after getting the two recommended doses of the vaccine."
The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency said the number of children who lacked all or some of the recommended vaccines had been steadily increasing until last year, when the Public Health Department changed the process for parents to get a personal belief exemption. The new form must be signed by a health care professional and a parent or guardian when seeking an exemption from required vaccinations.
Since then, the percentage of San Diego County kindergartners with a PBE for childhood vaccinations dropped from 4.5 percent last school year to 3.5 percent this current year, for a total of more than 1,500 out of the nearly 44,000 kindergartners enrolled in local schools, according to the Health and Human Services Agency.
There are 173 cases of measles reported in 17 states this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Measles cases have been reported in Washington, D.C., Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.
The outbreaks in Illinois, Washington state and Nevada are unrelated to Disneyland, according to the CDC.
From Dec. 28 to March 6, 142 people from seven states came down with measles from the Disneyland outbreak. The states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah and Washington state, according to the CDC.
There were 644 measles cases in 27 states, the most since measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to the CDC. In most cases, the victims were unvaccinated, according to the CDC.
Scientists say the measles virus in this outbreak matches one in the Philippines last year.
