County Seeks Outside Nurses to Help Battle Measles Eruption : Health: The outbreak now numbers 42 confirmed and 35 probable cases. Officials say immunization effort has meant neglecting other duties.

With Ventura County’s measles epidemic at 42 confirmed cases and climbing, county public health officials are hoping to bolster nursing staff--weary from giving hundreds of immunizations and tracking new cases--with help from the state and neighboring counties.

“You can do a full-court, crisis press for a week or two, but eventually you have to turn your attention to your full responsibilities,” said Dr. Gary Feldman, the county’s public health officer.

State officials agreed Thursday to pay travel and other expenses if public health departments in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties would lend nurses to Ventura County.

Since the outbreak was detected five weeks ago, public health nurses from Ventura to Simi Valley have set aside their regular duties in an all-out effort to stop the virus from spreading.

They have postponed home visits to women with high-risk pregnancies. They have delayed contacting tuberculosis patients. And they have spent less time investigating reports of child neglect.

On Wednesday, Feldman asked the state Department of Health Services to provide additional nurses, or funding to pay for more nurses. They are needed, he said, to interview those infected and assist with immunizations.

In just the last two weeks of January, nurses gave 1,544 measles shots. February statistics are not yet available. In addition to the 42 confirmed measles diagnoses, the county now has 35 probable cases--a number that varies daily based on the results of blood tests.

In response to requests for help, Feldman said, Santa Barbara County has offered two nurses for at least a week. State officials are still talking with public health officials in Los Angeles, and no decision had been made Thursday.

“It’s difficult to find people to spare,” said Dr. Loring Dales, chief of the immunization branch of the state Health Department.

The state also has agreed to lend the county an epidemiologist, two public health advisers and one public health nurse.

The epidemiologist, Feldman said, will begin analyzing data to try to identify patterns among those infected. By identifying methods of transmission, nurses can target specific groups for immunizations, rather than the whole county.

“I think that’s going to be a better strategy,” he said.

The measles cases are still concentrated in the Ventura-Oxnard area, but have spread throughout the county. Of the confirmed cases, 18 are in Oxnard, 16 in Ventura, three each in Santa Paula and Thousand Oaks, and one each in Simi Valley and Port Hueneme.

Ventura County’s outbreak is the largest, by far, in the state this year, said Dr. Dales of the state Health Department.

Nine cases have been reported in Riverside since December. And the first case in Los Angeles County was confirmed in Inglewood this week, officials said.

Feldman said this outbreak differs from the one that struck the county and state over an 18-month period in 1989 and 1990.

“Those cases came in regular, small clumps, rather than in this explosive outbreak we’ve had,” he said.

Health officials have said that three groups are particularly vulnerable to the virus--infants who have not been vaccinated, children who have not received a second measles shot, and adults who were never vaccinated and never caught the virus. The disease is marked by flu-like symptoms and a blotchy rash. Occasionally, measles leads to more serious complications, such as encephalitis, and even death.

Nurses in the county’s Public Health Department welcomed the news Thursday that help might be on the way.

“They’ve been working so many clinic hours, their other work has suffered,” said Caron Tait, a nursing supervisor with the Public Health Department. “This was to try and give them some respite.”