Arresting an outbreak.

Byline: The Register-Guard

It's possible for someone who has grown up in a wealthy country with an excellent vaccination program to believe measles is a trivial childhood illness. That belief is profoundly mistaken.

Among the most contagious of all diseases, measles killed an estimated 410,000 children under age 5 worldwide in 2004, according to the World Health Organization. Every year in the developing world, tens of thousands of children who survive a measles infection suffer irreversible brain damage or blindness.

Measles is not a trivial childhood illness, which is why Lane County Public Health officials are urging people who may have been exposed to either of the two young men who have confirmed cases of measles to act responsibly and follow directions. The most important advice: Avoid exposing more people to the fiercely virulent disease.

Anyone who thinks they may have measles should call ahead before showing up at a doctor's office or hospital emergency room and potentially exposing others.

Dr. Sarah Hendrickson, Lane County's public health officer, put her staff on high alert after a 21-year-old Eugene man returning from a trip to Japan on May 22 became the first confirmed case of measles in Lane County since 1990. In a matter of days the infected man potentially exposed more than 100 Eugene hospital patients, employees and visitors and an unknown number of grocery store and restaurant patrons, plus dozens of air travelers, to the enormously contagious virus.

He also exposed another young man in Eugene, who was diagnosed with the disease on May 29, and Hendrickson's staff told the man he needed to stay home until he was no longer contagious. Inexplicably, the second man disregarded the health warnings and attended a hip-hop show at the WOW Hall and went drinking afterward at a downtown Eugene bar. The next night, he went out for sushi.

Hendrickson said both men came from families of "vaccine resisters" who do not believe in measles vaccinations, and "who don't think measles are a big deal." Though they couldn't be more wrong about the seriousness of measles - all 50 states require schoolchildren to have measles immunizations - their families took advantage of an Oregon law that allows an exemption from mandatory vaccinations for religious or philosophical reasons.

But, as Hendrickson pointed out to Register-Guard reporter Tim Christie, "Having opted out of that, they're opting into the need to respect the rest of their community, when they might have been exposed to a disease to which they're not immune. We're relying on people's common sense and community spirit."

When it comes to measles, vaccine resisters face little risk in the United States, where the vast majority of Americans have immunity, either because they received two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine as children, or because they were born before 1957 and thus exposed to the virus. But when unimmunized Americans travel abroad, their risk of contracting diseases increases markedly.

The 21-year-old unvaccinated man who flew to Japan happened to arrive as the country was in the throes of a measles outbreak that had infected more than 700 people since February. When he flew home, the number of people affected by his family's decision to opt out of a childhood measles immunization suddenly expanded dramatically.