OLYMPIA – State Health officials believe they are getting a better idea of where that state’s measles outbreak originated. There have been at least 50 cases in Washington.

The state health department says it has now tracked down so called “patient zero” as being a visitor from outside the country. That person went to public places… And the measles spread among unvaccinated children in Washington. The strain — D8 — matches a strain from an ongoing outbreak in Eastern Europe. Health workers saying importation of the virus is a common way it shows up in the U-S. And then it spreads like wildfire among unvaccinated children as it’s doing now.

Washington state epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist said that so-called ‘patient zero’ was someone who was visiting the U.S. from outside the country.

Lindquist said in an interview Tuesday “There was a large group of kids that were exposed to a visitor from outside the country that developed measles, and then what quickly happened is all those kids who were unimmunized actually went to public places like Ikea and Costco and the Portland Trailblazers game and they then spread it to anyone in the population that was unimmunized.”

More than 50 cases have been confirmed in Washington, mostly in the Vancouver area but also in King County, with many more suspected cases being tested.

(Photo AP NEWS)