BOZEMAN — Measles has been slowly on the rise in Gallatin County after 5 cases were first confirmed in April. Since then, 5 more cases have been confirmed, bringing the total to 10 cases in Gallatin County.
"And we will continue to monitor the situation. We have summer travel coming up. We have visitors coming to our community, and we’re also visiting places as well. So, we may see additional cases," says Lori Christenson with the Gallatin City-County Health Department.
WATCH: Measles Surge Prompts Vaccination Urgency in Gallatin County
In just the last week, two additional cases were confirmed by the health department, one of the afflicted adults having been vaccinated for measles previously.
"While the MMR vaccine is highly effective, 97% effectiveness rate, it’s not 100%. No vaccine is going to be 100%. And so, there are possibilities for breakthrough cases, but it should not erode trust in the effectiveness of the vaccine," says Christenson.
Bozeman Health’s infectious disease medical director, Peter Bulger, says he has no problem continuing to recommend the vaccine as the best protection against measles.
"There’s a myth that natural immunity is better than vaccine immunity, and that’s, number one, just not true. And number two, in the measles case, there’s two long-term effects that you will only get from infection, not vaccination, that are quite serious," says Bulger.
He adds that the vaccine has over 70 years of proven safety and effectiveness.
And the health department says they have seen an increase in vaccinations since the first cases appeared in April.
"So, I can report that, as the health department, we’ve seen about 150 individuals come in and get vaccinated. So that’s a good uptick, and we’d like to see that continue," says Christenson.
The health department has listed Casey’s Corner on Valley Center Drive in Bozeman as an active public exposure location and warns anyone who was there on May 20th from 7 am to 10 am to look out for symptoms.
"More than 90% of people around here are vaccinated against this, which is what will really prevent this from being anything like the COVID pandemic," says Bulger.
Visit the Healthy Gallatin website for more information.
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