UPDATE: Jan. 29, 2015 at 4:50 p.m.
The Public Health Department in Santa Barbara County said Thursday afternoon that it has received the laboratory test results for a possible measles patient, and says they came back negative.
All those who were potentially exposed will be notified directly and immediately released from any quarantine or isolation status.
The department still wants to urge residents to get vaccinated.
Original Story:
A possible case of measles in the Santa Barbara area has health care leaders concerned.
Lab results could be in as early as next week for a child showing clinical symptoms of measles.
Dr. Takashi Wada is with Santa Barbara Public Health and says although it's an unconfirmed case, they are taking aggressive actions.
"We've initiated contact tracing to identify individuals who may have been exposed," said Wada. "We're providing vaccine for members of the household as well as to those who've been exposed."
Wada also said county health workers are coordinating with any institutions where exposures may have taken place to determine any individuals that may have been exposed in those locations.
They're also looking at various high risk individuals and seeing if we need to exclude them from work or school.
Wada says they are coordinating with the state and talking to other counties where a concentration of cases exist to learn from their experiences dealing with the outbreak.
He says the most important tool for this highly contagious disease, is to get the vaccine. The latest numbers show 79 Californians are infected with measles, with 52 of those directly connected to the outbreak originating at Disney Theme Parks.