Saline County Health Department prepares for potential measles cases
2025-04-25T09:11:01Z
Although no measles cases have been reported in Saline County, health officials are preparing for that possibility as the illness spreads in Kansas.
AI-assisted summary Saline County is preparing for a potential measles outbreak despite no current cases.
The county health department is reviewing protocols and coordinating with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Local health officials would likely notify the public within 12-24 hours of a confirmed case.
Residents are encouraged to check their measles vaccination status with their health care provider or the health department.
With 37 cases identified in Kansas, Saline County is preparing for the possibility of measles coming to the community.
As of now, Jason Tiller, director of the Saline County Health Department, said he isn’t concerned about measles spreading in the county, as the closest confirmed cases are more than 100 miles away in southwestern Kansas, but it’s always good to be prepared for any possibility.
“We’re kind of lining up our ABCs and our XYZs just in case,” he said.
Right now, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment updates its 2025 measles outbreak dashboard each Wednesday, and Tiller said he, along with the general public, has been getting much of the data from that.
“If we’re not in these counties, we really don’t get anymore detailed information than what’s on the dashboard,” he said.
Tiller said the county is well protected from a measles outbreak, particularly because of relatively high vaccination rates against the illness in the community.
These protections don’t mean that an outbreak can’t happen here, so in the meantime, health officials are preparing for that possibility.
Putting steps in place if measles comes to Saline County
For now, much of the preparations for health officials comes in the form of making sure protocols are in place and being followed and getting ready for if measles finds its way to Saline County.
“It’s just being ready for the phone call if we get one either from a provider or from KDHE,” Tiller said.
He said there is a requirement for health providers to notify KDHE within four hours suspected measles case or one confirmed by lab results.
In addition, providers are expected to notify local health authorities, like Saline County Health, but KDHE will notify them no matter what to begin next steps in the process.
“They’ll call me and give me the basics, because they will have started a case in the epidemiology tracking system,” he said.
At that point, a few staff members from the county health department will begin gathering information to figure out the response on a local level.
As for the general public, Tiller said likely they will notified within 12 to 24 hours of a case, but that might come sooner depending on when and where the person may have been while infectious.
“If it turns out that this person was in their infectious period, especially with summer coming at, like a summer camp, then we’re going to be calling in other people to start making phone calls and other things,” he said. “It’s really dependent on what information we get and what we learned and then expanding from there.”
He said because of the unlikely nature of a large cluster of infections in the county, staff would really work on notifying close contacts first.
“We want to make sure that all of our T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted … before we probably announce it to the public and then have a lot of worried people,” he said.
Another part of these preparations comes from gathering information and FAQs about measles for when the public would be notified of a local case.
“We’re still going to get phone calls, I mean, that’s given,” he said. “But if we can try and anticipate the questions or the concerns that people might have and address those as part of the press release or the information that we get out, that hopefully that will answer most of their questions and kind of cut down on the phone calls.”
By getting out information ahead of time, Tiller said it would hopefully give staff more time to focus on things like notifying contacts.
Check with health providers to see if vaccination is needed
While he said vaccination levels against measles is fairly high for Saline County, Tiller recommends those concerned about whether they are protected to check with their health providers or the health department,.
Fortunately, Kansas has a statewide immunization registry which contains records from at least 1994, including legacy data imported from before that year.
There are some situations where people who received the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR vaccine, might need to receive another, but he said the conditions are a little complicated to the average person.
“I think the best message is that if you are unsure about your vaccination status for MMR is to either call us and we can look it up or call your provider and they can look it up,” he said. “That way you know for sure what your status is and what next steps you need to take, if any.”
The Saline County Health Department and other local health care providers, including some pharmacies, do have MMR vaccines available if that is the step that a provider recommends.
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