{"id":22811,"date":"2025-04-03T17:04:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T23:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-considered-at-risk-for-a-measles-outbreak\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:18:00","slug":"montezuma-county-considered-at-risk-for-a-measles-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-considered-at-risk-for-a-measles-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County considered \u2018at-risk\u2019 for a measles outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The measles virus. (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

School districts in Montezuma County fall below the state threshold of 95% for their measles, mumps and rubella immunization levels, and is considered \u2018at-risk\u2019 for a measles outbreak.<\/p>\n

School districts\u2019 MMR immunization levels in Montezuma County range from 87% to 93%:<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1: 92.1%<\/div>\n
Mancos School District RE-6: 87.1%<\/div>\n
Dolores School District RE-4A: 92.9%<\/div>\n

North of Montezuma County, the Dolores County School District RE-2 is ranked fourth-worst in the state for its immunization level of 74.9%. To the east, the Durango School District 9-R is at 94%, according to an interactive CDPHE map<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Records in the Colorado Immunization Information System \u201conly go back so far,\u201d and the county\u2019s system didn\u2019t become active until early 2000, which is why there\u2019s not an accurate adult count, said Julie Jacobsen, a nurse at the Montezuma County Public Health Department.<\/p>\n

\"A
A screenshot of an interactive map on the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment detailing school district\u2019s immunization levels statewide. According to state data, Montezuma County is \u201cat risk\u201d for a measles outbreak.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Measles in Colorado, surrounding states<\/div>\n

On March 31, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment confirmed a case of measles \u201cin an unvaccinated adult\u201d in Pueblo, according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe individual recently traveled to an area of Mexico experiencing an ongoing measles outbreak,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Because there\u2019s only one case in Colorado as of April 3, it\u2019s not considered an outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree cases of measles would be considered an outbreak,\u201d said Jacobsen.<\/p>\n

Since 2014, there\u2019s been six cases of measles in the state. Before this year, the most recent case was reported in 2023.<\/p>\n

Zooming out, as of March 27, there\u2019s 483 confirmed cases in 20 states, according the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The majority of those cases \u2013 467, or 97% of them \u2013 are in Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, which surround Colorado, said Sarah Bonar, a media relations specialist at Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado.<\/p>\n

Bonar highlighted that, so far:<\/p>\n

97% of the cases have been individuals who are unvaccinated or with an \u201cunknown\u201d vaccination status.<\/div>\n
33% of cases have been children and infants underage 5.<\/div>\n
42% of cases have been children 5 to 19 years old.<\/div>\n

\u201cAs with most measles outbreaks, the majority of cases have been in children, and the majority of hospitalizations due to measles have been pediatric,\u201d said Bonar.<\/p>\n

Measles prevention<\/div>\n

\u201cMeasles is one of the most contagious diseases on the planet,\u201d Bonar said. \u201cIt\u2019s so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of people exposed to that person who are not immune will also become infected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CDPHE website<\/a> said that people usually develop symptoms \u201cseven to 21 days after exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSymptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a characteristic rash that usually starts several days later on the face and spreads,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The virus is airborne and \u201ccan remain in a closed setting up to two hours after an infected person has occupied the area,\u201d said Jacobsen.<\/p>\n

The best protection against measles is the MMR vaccination, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne dose delivers 93% protection. Two doses provide 97% protection,\u201d said Jacobsen.<\/p>\n

People born before 1957 \u201care generally considered immune\u201d and do not need to be vaccinated, the CDPHE site said.<\/p>\n

Adults vaccinated before 1968, between 1963 and 1967, received either an inactivated or unknown vaccine, said Jacobsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no recommendation for adults born between 1968 and 1989, who likely received just one dose of the measles vaccine,\u201d Jacobsen said. \u201cA second dose of MMR is recommended if you work in health care, attend school\/college setting, or plan to travel internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an adult is unsure of their MMR vaccination history, there is no harm in getting a dose of MMR vaccine even if you may be immune already,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Children should get two doses of the MMR vaccine, with the first dose at 12 to 15 months old, and the second at four to six years old.<\/p>\n

The MMR vaccine is available at the Montezuma County Public Health Department and the Southwest Memorial Hospital outpatient pharmacy in Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny community in Colorado that is not vaccinated to a rate that will provide herd immunity (greater than 95%), remains at risk of an outbreak,\u201d said Bonar in an email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

95% of its K-12 population is vaccinated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,837,28,83,60,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-dolores-county","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77865,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22811\/revisions\/77865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22811"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}