Nearly 200 students forced into quarantine after outbreak of measles on campus
Nearly 200 students have been rushed into quarantine in North Dakota over fears they have been exposed to measles.
The under-18s had all been in school buses or on campus at elementary, middle and high schools at the same time as four others who have the ultra-infectious disease.
All 180 students are unvaccinated, with officials saying they must now quarantine for 21 days - the time taken for symptoms of the virus to emerge.
Vaccinated students are not required to quarantine as they are considered to be protected, with two doses slashing the risk of infection by 97 per cent.
The students will not leave quarantine until after term ends on May 23, but school principals say if they aren't infected they will be able to attend graduation ceremonies.
Williston Middle School and Williston High School are affected, as well as Missouri Ridge Elementary. Together, they have a total of around 5,300 students.
It comes after the U.S. crossed another grim milestone, with the CDC today confirmed that more than 1,000 measles cases have been diagnosed in the country. This puts the tally at 1,001 infections.
This marks only the second time the country has seen this many cases since the disease was declared eradicated nationwide in 2000, with some doctors now worried the country could lose its measles elimination status.
Measles is a highly infectious disease that patients can pass on to around nine out of ten unvaccinated people that they expose to the virus.
Symptoms start as a fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes and progress to a rash that starts on the head before spreading over the body.
The disease is particularly dangerous to young children, with the CDC saying one in 20 unvaccinated children who are infected develop pneumonia while one in 1,000 suffer from encephalitis - swelling of the brain that can cause permanent damage.
One to three in every 1,000 unvaccinated children who are infected die from the disease.
Officials in North Dakota said that some of the students asked to quarantine had not attended the schools but shared a school bus with infected students.
Paula Lankford, spokeswoman for the Williston Basin School District, said teachers would provide materials for quarantined children to use at home.
Speaking to North Dakota Monitor she said: 'Each of the schools is going to work with those families that are excluded to ensure that they have educational opportunities for their kids and connections with teachers through digital means.
'What's obviously on our side is that there is not that much school left. We are done here on May 23rd.'
Williams County, which is home to the schools, had a measles vaccination rate of 71 per cent in the 2024 to 2025 school year.
This is well below the 95 per cent that scientists say is needed to prevent an outbreak of the disease.
The CDC says that vaccines are the best way to prevent an infection, with two doses providing 97 per cent immunity against the disease.
The Upper Missouri District Health Unit, which serves Williams County, is holding a walk-in vaccination clinic Friday from 8.30am to 6pm at 110 W Broadway, Williston.
Nine cases of measles have been detected in North Dakota since the start of this year.
Of the confirmed cases, two are in children under ten years old while five are in children aged between 10 and 19 years.
There is also a case in a 30 to 39-year-old and in a 40 to 49-year-old.
The first case reported this year was in a Williams County child who is believed to have contracted measles from an out-of-state visitor.
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