Illinois public health officials confirm state's 4th case of measles in 2025
A new case of measles has been confirmed in Illinois, the state's fourth case so far this year.
The Illinois Department of Public Health measles dashboard showed four confirmed cases in 2025 on Friday.
The previous three cases had been in Chicago, the Cook County suburbs, and southern Illinois. It was not immediately clear where the fourth case was reported.
The condition of the fourth person infected also was not available.
The latest case comes just two days after Chicago and Cook County officials confirmed two cases in Cook County – one in Chicago and one in the suburbs.
One of those cases involved a suburban adult patient whose vaccination status is unknown. The second involved an adult Chicago resident who traveled internationally through O'Hare International Airport last month. They previously had one dose of the MMR vaccine.
Both of those patients have been isolated since being diagnosed.
Last week, the state confirmed Illinois' first case of measles in 2025 in far southern Illinois.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 935 confirmed cases of measles have been reported nationwide this year, most of them (680) in Texas, where the outbreak started.
Chicago saw its own measles outbreak just last year — affecting in particular the migrant shelter in operation at the time in Pilsen. There were 67 cases reported in the March and April 2024 Chicago area outbreak altogether.
Public health officials confirmed Chicago's first case of measles since 2019 on March 7, 2024. The next day, the city saw its first measles case at the since-closed Pilsen migrant shelter at 2241 S. Halsted St.
A total of 57 migrants at the shelter ended up testing positive for measles during March and April last year. At the time, the Pilsen shelter was the city's largest shelter for asylum seekers, with approximately 1,900 migrants living there.
