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With Super Bowl approaching, Ariz. struggles with measles

"All it takes is a quick trip to the Costco before you're ill and, 'bam,' you've just exposed a few hundred people," the Arizona health services director said.

By Frances Burns
The NFL Vince Lombardi Trophy sits between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots helmets Friday in Phoenix. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
The NFL Vince Lombardi Trophy sits between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots helmets Friday in Phoenix. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

PHOENIX, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- With thousands of people traveling to Phoenix for the Super Bowl, Arizona is struggling to contain a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland.

At least seven cases had been reported in the state on Thursday, four of them members of one family in Pinal County who apparently caught measles during a visit to Disneyland. A Pinal County man who visited the family caught the disease from them.

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Two cases have been reported in neighboring Maricopa County, home to the University of Phoenix Stadium where Sunday's game will be played. One apparently caught measles from the Pinal County family, and one had traveled to Disneyland.

At least 1,000 people in Arizona, many of them children, may have been exposed to the disease, health officials said.

Phoenix this weekend resembles Disneyland, drawing visitors from around the United States and elsewhere. Most of the 84 people diagnosed with measles in January in the United States either visited Disneyland or caught it from someone who did.

While no Patient Zero has been identified, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes measles probably arrived at Disneyland via an overseas traveler.

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Jeanne Fowler, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Health Department, said it is too late to urge those attending the Super Bowl to get vaccinated against measles. The vaccine takes about two weeks to become effective.

State health officials said children exposed to measles who have not been vaccinated should remain out of school or day care for 21 days, the incubation period for the disease. Adults should remain at home.

"To stay in your house for 21 days is hard," Arizona Health Services Director Will Humble said. "But we need people to follow those recommendations, because all it takes is a quick trip to the Costco before you're ill and, 'bam,' you've just exposed a few hundred people. We're at a real critical juncture with the outbreak."

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