Measles Immune Globulin Needed

With the number of measles cases in Ventura County climbing each day, public health officials are now scrambling to increase the county’s supply of an immune-boosting substance given to the most high-risk patients.

Dr. Gary Feldman, the county’s public health officer, said the county still has enough immune globulin to treat the five adults and children who have been exposed to the virus and belong to a high-risk category, which includes pregnant women, infants and individuals with suppressed immune systems.

But, he said, the supply will be exhausted if more is not found during the next week--about the length of time it takes the first symptoms to appear after exposure.

The looming shortage, Feldman said, comes as a result of the military buying up much of the country’s available immune globulin in preparation for the invasion of Haiti.

Feldman said he contacted state officials and elected representatives on Thursday to ask for help in obtaining immune globulin from the military.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed and suspected measles cases had climbed to 36 on Thursday, from 27 earlier in the week. And the cases have spread to more cities. Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Camarillo and Agoura Hills all have confirmed or suspected cases, he said.

“We seem to be the command central for measles at the moment,” Feldman said of the outbreak in Ventura County, adding that a few cases also were reported in Riverside and Kern counties.

No updated numbers were available Friday.

Feldman reiterated the call for all adults and children who have not yet been fully immunized to do so. Many adults are susceptible to the contagious virus because they were not properly vaccinated or received an ineffective vaccine.

Unlike the supply of immune globulin, the county now has plenty of vaccine, thanks to a shipment of 5,000 doses that arrived from the state on Thursday, Feldman said.