The Ohio Department of Health has warned residents about a new outbreak of measles identified in Cuyahoga County.
This past Thursday, the department announced the first measles cases of 2026, three children from a household in the Northeast Ohio county.
The state health department said all the children were unvaccinated at the time, and had traveled outside Ohio to “an area in the United States with an ongoing measles outbreak.”
“The fact that we have measles cases in Ohio underlines the importance of being fully vaccinated,” said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health. “This disease can be very serious, but it is also preventable.”
Ohio has had three years over the last two decades where measles numbers rose above single digits: last year’s 44 cases, 2022’s 90, and a 2014 outbreak of 382 cases tied to an Amish community with limited vaccinations.
The 2014 case happened after the Ohio residents took a mission trip to the Philippines, a country that was experiencing an active spread with thousands of cases. The Ohio outbreak made national headlines and caught the attention of medical researchers.
Outside of 2025, 2022, and 2014, Ohio has seen only 27 cases since 2000, according to state data. Measles was declared “eliminated” in the United States in 2000, according to the CDC, meaning the continuous spread of the disease hadn’t occurred in more than a year.
“This was thanks to a highly effective vaccination program in the United States, as well as better measles control in the Americas region,” the CDC stated on their website.
With measles cases now increasing in states across the country, that eliminated status could be in doubt, especially as vaccination rates decline as well.
The overall vaccination rates of kindergartners has gone down, according to the federal agency, but in the 2024-2025 school year, about 286,000 U.S. kindergartners attended school without documentation of the immunization for measles – called the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
In Ohio, CDC data showed 88.3% MMR vaccination coverage among kindergartners for that school year. The rate was down from the previous year, when coverage was shown at 89.2%.
The decline also comes at a time when Trump administration officials have reduced the number of vaccines recommended for children, though the most recent changes left the recommendation for the MMR vaccine in place.
The Ohio Department of Health said Thursday that while measles is extremely contagious, spread through coughing and sneezing, the MMR vaccine is “very safe and effective.”
Receiving the two doses of the vaccine, as the CDC currently recommends, is 97% effective, and the risk of getting sick is “very low” if Ohioans are up to date, according to the state.
“If people are not protected against the disease, nine out of 10 people who are exposed will become ill,” the state health department stated.
The infection can live for up to two hours in the air, and people infected with measles can spread it starting four days before a rash appears, and continue spreading it until four days after.
Symptoms other than a rash include a high fever, runny nose, cough, loss of appetite, and red, watery eyes.
Complications can occur, most commonly in children younger than 5, adults older than 20, pregnant individuals, and those with compromised immune systems.
Measles complications can include diarrhea and ear infections, along with pneumonia, which the state health department is the most common cause of death in young children with the disease.
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.