Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

A deadly childhood disease has made its return, and has been found in Iowa.

Guthrie County Health Services Director Jotham Arber shares that the current outbreak of measles along the southern border of the US is most likely where many cases outside of that area can be traced back to. While cases in Iowa have been on the eastern side of the state, there is one big thing for people to know.

“Measles is a very contagious virus. To put this in perspective for you, in the epidemiology world we use an ‘R’ naught factor to determine how infectious something is. And so for something like COVID or the flu, you’re at an ‘R’ naught factor of two to three, sometimes four, depending on what strain we’re dealing with. And that means, is that for every one person that’s sick, they’ll infect four other people. When we think about measles, we’re in the neighborhood of 12 to 18, depending on certain factors. That means for every person that has measles, they’ll spread it to 12 to 18 people.”

Arber mentions that there are only a handful of cases in Iowa at this time, but that most likely the numbers may double or even triple before they level off. He adds that just like any other disease, some people may be more impacted by measles than others, and there are some who may contract it and not get sick, acting as carriers of the illness. Arber shares that Guthrie County Public Health and all the providers in Guthrie County have access to a supply of vaccinations for measles. He explains that if you aren’t sure if you’ve had the vaccine, contact GCPH or your provider, and they can check your medical records.