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Show Showdown Fight against Measles of children in Utah and the nation, the number of reported cases of measles has been dropping. This year may be an all time low for this disease, according to Dr. Mason. There may be as few as 100 chains of measles transmission in the entire country this summer. However, if the disease is allowed to regain its momentum, large" outbreaks may occur this fall or winter. Now appears to be an opportune time to search out the disease and cut its chain of transmission. Ten states including Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas , Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska are working together in a coordinated summer search for measles in an attempt to eliminate the disease from this region )f the United States. The "Summer Search for Measles" was officially launched today by the State Department of Health, according to Dr. James (). Mason, Director of Health. The goal of this intensive effort in August and September Sep-tember is to locate all cases of measles in the state and cut the chain of transmission. tran-smission. According to Dr. Mason, once a case of measles is identified the plan is to intervene in-tervene so that the disease cannot spread to others. This program in Utah is a part of ' a national effort to eliminate indigenous measles from the United States. "Public support is essential ' to our efforts to eradicate this disease," said Dr. Mason. "I am" 'requesting the cooperation of all citizens in order to reach the goal of total measles ' elimination in Utah." There are two primary areas where all citizens can participate to support the state and local health departments in the "Summer "Sum-mer Search for Measles": 1. Parents need to check the immunization records of their children. Children should be immunized as soon as possible if there is no record of measles immunization, im-munization, if a child was immunized before his-her first birthday or if there is any uncertainty as to immunization. im-munization. Of particular concern are teenagers and young adults. These age groups appear to be at a greater risk and are the least likely to be adequately immunized. This is also an ideal opportunity op-portunity to review the child's entire immunization history to ensure protection against all the so-called childhood diseases. 2. Parents are requested to immediately report to their family physician or local health department any suspect cases of measles in their families. Measles is characterized by a high fever, runny nose, cough, light sensitive, reddened or sore eyes and skin rash. Children with these symptoms symp-toms should be kept at home to avoid transmission of the disease to others. Dr. Mason explained that August and September were selected as the months for this intensive measles search because the disease appears to be more vulnerable during this time. Measles has a seasonal occurrence with fewest reported cases in the late summer and the greatest number of cases reported in the late winter. The disease maintains itself through a continuous chain of persons who are either ill or incubating in-cubating the disease. The task for this and future efforts ef-forts will be to interrupt this chain of transmission. Due to the success of the Immunization Initiative in raising immunization levels |