SACRAMENTO - (INT) - The California measles outbreak that began in December 2014 is over, it was announced Friday by Dr. Karen Smith, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and state health officer.

No new outbreak-related measles cases have been reported to CDPH for two 21-day incubation periods (42 days), allowing public health officials to declare the outbreak that infected 131 Californians to be over.

Forty-two cases were directly linked to an initial exposure in December at Disneyland or Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California. Additional cases were secondary to those.

Forty-four other cases have an unknown exposure source. It is possible, but unlikely, that some of the cases with unknown exposure sources are unrelated importations of the B3 strain into the state.

While this outbreak is over, it does not mean that there will not be future measles cases reported in California.

The public health investigation into this measles outbreak was significant. Thousands of measles contacts in California were identified. Exposures occurred in public places including health care settings, schools, malls, and airports. Babies and pre-school children, pregnant women, schoolchildren of all ages, health care workers, teachers, and other adults were exposed to measles during this outbreak. Lab tests in state and local laboratories were conducted for over 1,000 patients.

The California measles patients in this outbreak reside in 14 local health jurisdictions (Alameda, Los Angeles, Marin, Merced, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Ventura counties and the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena).

Patients range in age from six weeks to 70 years.

Story Date: April 19, 2015