Tucson seeing measles outbreak

Tucson's a beautiful city with a lot to offer, but we do have an occasional fault or two. One of the big stories in Tucson right now is the measles outbreak that's hit our area. On February 23 a case of measles was confirmed by Northwest Medical Center. Since then 16 cases have been confirmed and are thought to be tied to a female visitor from Switzerland. It was originally thought that about 1700 people might have been infected.

Luckily that number was a lot lower, but there's still strong concern because measles are highly contagious and can lead to more severe complications like pneumonia and meningitis. The Pima County Health Department is jumping in and asking individuals that visitied the affected hospitals on certain dates to call and confirm their immunization records. They're also offering free immunization clinics to those needing vaccinations. Some Tucson schools are planning to vaccinate dozens of teachers and staff members to help prevent the spread of the disease, but one child within the Amphitheater school district might already be infected. That student as well as one other didn't get measles vaccinations as their parents signed exemption forms. Now anyone that doesn't get vaccinated wont be allowed back to school for two weeks.

Currently there are 64 confirmed cases of measles across the nation, and Tucson's cases make up about 25% of that number.