3 new Minnesota measles cases reported last week in Dakota County, MDH says
Three more measles cases have been reported in Minnesota in the past week.
The Minnesota Department of Health said the new cases all involved unvaccinated children, ages 5 to 17, who are all from the same family.
Health officials are working with local health departments to contact people believed to have been exposed.
These new cases bring the state's number of identified cases this year to eight.
"Unfortunately, we still see kids die of measles and it is a vaccine-preventable disease," said Stacene Maroushek, pediatric infectious disease specialist with Hennepin Healthcare. "Three is considered an outbreak and it is concerning because we know our vaccine rates have really dropped off since COVID."
Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases, and in some cases can cause severe infections in the lungs and brain that can lead to cognitive issues, deafness or death.
The best way to prevent measles, according to health experts, is through immunization.
Officials recommend children receive two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — the first at 12 to 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
Maroushek blames the current outbreaks of the disease, once thought to be eliminated more than two decades ago, on misinformation spread online — namely, that vaccines can cause autism.
"I think we as physicians need to do a better job of promoting all of the stuff that we actually know from a scientific standpoint, and good data, to a level that people can readily access and understand," Maroushek said.
Earlier this summer, state health officials announced an unvaccinated child, also from Dakota County, exposed hundreds of people to measles during a visit to Mall of America's Nickelodeon Universe.
As of Friday, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services has identified 36 measles cases this year, with the most recent cases connected to an out-of-state visitor who exposed customers at separate rest stops in Roberts and Beloit.
So far this year, the U.S. has reported more than 1,500 cases of measles, with more than 760 in Texas alone.