Arizona health officials announced a total 11 confirmed cases of measles in Arizona. All of the cases are either detainees or staff at a federal detention center in Eloy.

Earlier, last week, the measles outbreak begun at an immigration detention center in Eloy with two confirmed cases. While eight additional cases of measles were confirmed by the Arizona Department of Health Services and Pinal County Public Health Services District.

Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said in a statement, that, "This is an evolving situation, and given how contagious measles can be, Public Health will continue to update our communities on places of potential exposure."

Jessica Rigler, of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said that “We’re looking at a couple months at least of a response from public health to make sure that we’re identifying all measles cases, figuring out where they may have gone in the community, and then notifying those community members they were potentially exposed.”

“Measles is highly contagious, so up to 90 percent of people who have not been vaccinated against measles will come down with it if they come into contact with someone who has measles,” said Rigler.

“It’s very concerning that we’ll see additional cases popping up, just because measles symptoms don’t appear until after you’re contagious. So sometimes you are sick and you don’t know and you’re spreading that disease to others,”  Rigler added.

Also read: Arizona reports 2 cases of measles!

Nandini