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SALT LAKE CITY — The measles virus may have been present, albeit uninvited, at two recent community events in the Salt Lake Valley and nearly 1,000 people are reported to have been in attendance.
- Presentation by author Nicholas Kristof at the Salt Lake Community College on April 11
- Presentation by author Nicholas Kristof at the Salt Lake Community College on April 11.
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Garth Koyle went into the Entrepreneurial Challenge Final Awards last week not sure if his team would win. So when Event Espresso took top prize, it was a pleasant surprise.
But this week, Koyle got a not so pleasant surprise: an email informing him someone at the event had measles. Luckily both he and his wife are vaccinated.
"I was surprised. I didn't anticipate that," said Garth Koyle, who participated at the April 13 event. "I probably talked to and shook hands with about a hundred people that night."
Epidemiologists have determined that a single measles-infected person attended both the Entrepreneurial Challenge event, held April 13 at Rice Eccles Stadium, and a presentation by author Nicholas Kristof at the Salt Lake Community College on April 11.
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The Utah Department of Health on Thursday fielded more than two dozen phone calls resulting from the announcement that more people may have been exposed to the highly contagious disease.
And they expect more. They want to hear from every individual who attended either event and "because of the magnitude of the how many people are involved," public information specialist Charla Haley said they've enlisted the help of the Utah Poison Control Center's phone bank to make that possible.
Anyone who attended either event should call the Utah Poison Control Center, at 1-800-222-1222, and choose option No. 6 on the recorded message. The Salt Lake Valley Health Department has partnered with the center to collect information regarding the recent and ongoing local measles outbreak.
"We want to make sure that people had the appropriate vaccine and are protected," said Rebecca Ward, an educator for the UDOH's communicable disease program. "If you're not certain of your vaccination status, we ask that you stay home."
Public health officials need to know if attendees were fully vaccinated in order to implement appropriate measures to contain the outbreak. They will be asked to quarantine themselves until at least May 1, when their infectious period has passed.
Since the initial case was announced on April 7, nine separate cases of the disease has been confirmed within Salt Lake County. No other cases of measles have been confirmed elsewhere in the state.
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Story written by Wendy Leonard with contributions from Sarah Dallof.
