As Arizona prepares to host the Super Bowl this weekend, health officials fear that the major sporting event will worsen the state's measles outbreak.
"This is a critical point in this outbreak," Arizona Department of Health Services' Director Will Humble warned on the Health Department website. "If the public health system and medical community are able to identify every single susceptible case and get them into isolation, we have a chance of stopping this outbreak here."
Earlier this week Humble announced that although only seven people in the state have a confirmed case of the measles, another estimated 1,000 people have came in contact with those sickened by the virus.
"If we miss any potential cases and some of them go to a congregate setting with numerous susceptible contacts, we could be in for a long and protracted outbreak," said Humble.
This is worrisome to local health officials, as tens of thousands of people are headed to the state to watch the game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in Phoenix.
To help keep the chances of the virus spreading down, Humble detailed the health department's plans for this weekend in a second entry on the department's website.
There will be several BioWatch stations - the 100 percent federally funded U.S. Department of Homeland Security program developed to detect pathogens in outdoor air in the event of a terrorist attack - across Maricopa County filtering the air for a number of pathogens.
The Arizona measles outbreak was one of seven states with cases linked to the recent outbreak in California's Disney Parks.
