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FLORENCE – In January, the Pinal County Public Health Services District (PCPHSD) found itself in the middle of a developing international story.
Four members of a Kearny family following a December trip to Disneyland had contracted the measles virus. None of them had received their MMR vaccination.
“Measles is one of the easiest diseases to spread,” Public Health Director Tom Schryer said. “I consider ourselves fortunate that it didn’t spread to more people that came in contact with that family.”
PCPHSD released a media statement on January 22, alerting the Town of Kearny that a family had contracted the disease. It became a race against the clock for the staff at PCPHSD to investigate every place the family visited and to contact every person who might have been near them when they were out in public.
“Data became extremely important,” Assistant Director of Public Health for Operations Kore Redden recalled. “We had to find out those people who had come in contact with this family and determine their vaccination status because measles is easily spread to those who are not vaccinated.”
Because Measles is highly infectious, PCPHSD committed most of their staff to the investigation and response. Director Schryer said “We worked with schools, healthcare providers, the infected family and used the State immunization registry to determine who was at risk based on their contact with the family or lack of vaccination and then did all we could to immunize those who were susceptible.”
One set of employees proved to be extremely invaluable to the investigative process.
School Health Liaisons are placed in many public schools throughout Pinal County. It’s a program that offers health education for students and help with any health-related issue the school sees as a need.
“The School Health Liaisons were one of the keys to helping us out during this outbreak,” Schryer noted. These people are official county employees. They are trusted by school staff, students along with parents and that reaps huge benefits for us as a public health entity. They are our eyes and ears in the communities we serve.”
The cost of the handling the outbreak:
1,547 staff hours
$51,571.85 in salary and ERE
$34,429.35 in vaccines and other supplies
$86,001.00 Total cost
Schryer emphasized that this response to the measles outbreak expanded past the scope of public health. Many county departments had a role to play in assisting the department stop this outbreak. Members of the Emergency Management, Finance and Communications were named for their efforts in helping Public Health.
“We don’t have a very large staff,” Schryer explained. “We have a lean and very effective staff and we have a reason for that. Maintaining this lean staff allows us to use grant money to invest in the infrastructure that helps handle outbreaks like this”.
Schryer added the key to keeping everyone focused to the job at hand is clarity and setting priorities.
“All of us have a regular 8 to 5 job and there are duties that have to be completed day in and day out,” Schryer stated. “Public Health leaders have to give clarity to the staff to help them understand what is most important at this time, clearly public safety was most important”.
There was an added bit of pressure put on PCPHSD and the Arizona Department of Health Services due to the timing of the outbreak. The Super Bowl was just around the corner and the last thing the most watched championship game in the world needed was to have Measles as the pre-game show.
“This was one of the reasons we stepped up our efforts,” Schryer said. “This game was a year in the planning and every federal agency was in on the planning. They wanted it to go off without a hitch. And in the end, it did.”
Schryer gave his thanks to the public health staff who handled this outbreak while he was out on medical leave. He stated “It is a testament to the strength and talent of our staff that they did a fantastic job when without me, it makes me very proud that we have such a great staff from top to bottom”.
“One of the core reason county government exists are for issues like this,” Schryer concluded. “We keep people alive that could have died or suffered permanent health impacts from this very preventable disease.”
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
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