Vermont health officials have detected measles in Washington County wastewater.
The finding triggered an alert to area health care providers, specifically those at Central Vermont Medical Center, in Berlin, Vt., to be on the lookout for the disease if patients come in with measles symptoms — which can include a blotchy rash, a high fever, dry cough and runny nose. Measles can be deadly, especially in children, when it leads to brain swelling or severe respiratory issues.
The detection spurs more frequent testing from the state, according to Rick Hildebrant, Vermont’s health commissioner. The state health department wants to see if the case is isolated to one county or whether the disease is detected throughout the state, he said. The state’s wastewater detection system collects and tests samples one to three times a week at six sites in Vermont.
The wastewater testing system is able to show the concentration of virus appearing in sewage, Hildebrant said. And though many variables can dilute what appears in wastewater, the relatively low concentration detected seems to suggest that this positive finding is probably a single case, he said.
Given the prevalence of measles around the U.S. and the world right now, Hildebrant said he and the state’s epidemiologists are not surprised that the disease has been detected in Vermont.
More than 870 people have been infected with measles since October in a South Carolina outbreak. Across the border, Canada has seen a resurgence in measles cases so severe that it lost its official status as measles-free late last year.
The rise of the disease in the U.S. is correlated with a drop in vaccination against the measles.
The U.S. has seen an increase in vaccine skepticism and a loosening of immunization guidelines at the highest levels of the federal government under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who co-founded the vaccine-averse group Children’s Health Defense.
However, on Sunday, Mehmet Oz, the Kennedy-aligned head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, urged people to “please” get the measles vaccine. “That’s an example of an ailment that you should get vaccinated against,” he told CNN.
Vermont has relatively high vaccination rates against measles, Hildebrant told VTDigger, but the rate is not at a level the state would like to see. About 94% of children in Vermont’s schools are vaccinated against measles before entering kindergarten, according to the Department of Health’s website, but to reach true, protective herd immunity, the state says that figure should be 95%.
“Measles is probably the most contagious illness mankind has ever known,” Hildebrant said. That means the threshold for herd immunity is higher for measles than other infectious diseases.
Hildebrant said that lower vaccination rate is “concerning” to the health department, especially since it may be an indicator of the choices younger parents are making.
Still, he said that the most recent detection is not something people should “freak out” over.
The wastewater finding is yet another reason for parents to vaccinate their children against the disease and, if they can, breast-feed their babies too young to be eligible for the vaccine, since breast milk can convey some immunity, according to Hildebrant.
The state’s wastewater testing for measles started in the summer, Hildebrant said, making this alert the first time that the testing has yielded a positive result.
“It means our early warning systems are working,” Hildebrant told VtDigger.