PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Many Safeway and Albertsons stores throughout southwest Washington and Oregon who have always offered vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella are now seeing an increase in people using their service.
As the measles outbreak affects mostly unvaccinated children in Clark County, officials with the stores announced the MMR vaccine is available at many of their pharmacies.
Henrik Lee, a pharmacist at the Safeway in the Pearl District, said they’ve always provided vaccinations but he’s been doing a lot more since the outbreak.
“We were maybe doing one a month or one every other month,” he said. “I’ve done 4 in the last week.”
No appointment is necessary and vaccinations are available 7 days a week. Pharmacists can give the vaccinations to children 5 and older and all adults, and many locations have private pharmacy rooms.
Parents with children under 5 should talk with their pediatrician, he said. “Most children are getting a dose in infancy and childhood as just part of their routine vaccination.”
Adults who volunteer in hospitals, Lee said, need to prove they’re vaccinated before they can go back to work. If they’re not sure, they can get another shot.
“If you don’t know you can come down to the pharmacy and we can give it to you,” he told KOIN 6 News. “The process is pretty simple, takes about 20 minutes in total. You fill out a one-page questionnaire, we will bill your insurance and let you know what your co-pay is going to be before you get the vaccine.”
Most insurances are accepted, but customers should ask the pharmacy for complete details.
The 2 doses people get as a child “should protect you for life,” he said. “But if you don’t know there’s not a really huge risk in getting the vaccine.”
Lee said there will always be members of the community that can’t be vaccinated for specific medical reasons — for instance, anyone with a life-threatening allergy to any component of the vaccine, pregnant women or nursing mothers, or someone with a weakened immune system.
“We want to make sure that everyone that can be vaccinated gets it to protect the entire community,” he said. “This is such a contagious disease.”
Confirmed cases keep rising
As of Monday, Clark County health officials confirmed 49 measles cases and nine suspected cases since Jan. 1.
Of those cases, 47 are in southwest Washington, one is in Seattle and another is in the Portland area.
Only one of those confirmed cases was in a child who had received partial immunization — that is, only 1 of the 2 doses.
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency over the measles outbreak. The Clark County Public Health Department has a Measles Page with all the current information, including exposure sites.
KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.