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CNN
10-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Measles outbreak in North Dakota prompts local health officials to quarantine unvaccinated schoolchildren
Source: CNN Measles cases continue to accumulate in the United States in what is already the second-worst year since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago. Now, a recent outbreak in one North Dakota county has led local health officials to quarantine nearly 200 unvaccinated students. North Dakota has reported nine measles cases this year, and a recent outbreak among schoolchildren in Williams County in the northwest part of the state has led local health officials to enforce a law that requires unvaccinated students to quarantine for 21 days after exposure to someone who has the virus. The move was taken by local public health officers in the Upper Missouri District Health Unit, and the state health department is assisting with mitigation efforts. On Tuesday, families of 188 unvaccinated students in the Williston Basin School District No. 7 received a letter informing them that their children would need to quarantine for three weeks. About two weeks earlier, district nurse coordinator Lynn Douglas had sent a letter to all families in anticipation of an outbreak, preemptively outlining the quarantine procedure and highlighting the importance of prevention, including vaccination. 'Williston Basin School District #7 plays a very important role in the health and well-being of our students,' Douglas said in an email to CNN. 'Having vaccine-preventable diseases circulating within a school would lead to large numbers of school absences and adversely affect the health of our students.' 'While even a small drop in immunization rates can lead to outbreaks, unvaccinated students are at significant risk of serious illness and complications from measles, which are highly contagious and preventable diseases,' she said. 'WBSD #7 prioritizes student safety by taking measures to protect unvaccinated students and prevent the spread of illness to themselves, their families, and others and in order to do this, students must be excluded.' There have been at least 1,018 measles cases reported in the US in 2025, according to a CNN tally using data from state health departments and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC publishes data on measles cases each Friday, but it has stopped providing details on the specific number of cases in each state, and its national total does not always capture the latest updates from states. The vast majority of these cases – at least 845 – are associated with an outbreak centered in West Texas that has expanded to New Mexico, Oklahoma and possibly Kansas. Texas has reported 709 outbreak-associated cases, New Mexico reported 71 cases, and Oklahoma reported 17 cases – 14 confirmed and three probable – as of Friday. Cases in Kansas, which the state health department says may be linked to the outbreak, have reached 48 as of Wednesday. Experts say these numbers are all a severe undercount because many cases are going unreported. Since measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, 2019 is only other year in which there were more than 1,000 cases, driven by large outbreaks in New York City and a nearby suburb. There were 1,274 confirmed measles cases that year, according to the CDC, only about 250 more than have been reported so far in 2025. Nationwide, CDC data shows that 126 people have been hospitalized with measles this year – about 13% of all cases – and there have been three confirmed deaths associated with the large multistate outbreak: two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were unvaccinated. The vast majority of cases in the US this year have been in people who are unvaccinated; only about 4% of confirmed cases have been in people who had received one or two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to the CDC. There have been 14 total outbreaks this year, and 30 states have reported at least one case, according to the CDC. See Full Web Article
CNN
09-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Measles outbreak in North Dakota prompts local health officials to quarantine unvaccinated schoolchildren
Vaccines Federal agencies Student lifeFacebookTweetLink Follow Measles cases continue to accumulate in the United States in what is already the second-worst year since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago. Now, a recent outbreak in one North Dakota county has led local health officials to quarantine nearly 200 unvaccinated students. North Dakota has reported nine measles cases this year, and a recent outbreak among schoolchildren in Williams County in the northwest part of the state has led local health officials to enforce a law that requires unvaccinated students to quarantine for 21 days after exposure to someone who has the virus. The move was taken by local public health officers in the Upper Missouri District Health Unit, and the state health department is assisting with mitigation efforts. On Tuesday, families of 188 unvaccinated students in the Williston Basin School District No. 7 received a letter informing them that their children would need to quarantine for three weeks. About two weeks earlier, district nurse coordinator Lynn Douglas had sent a letter to all families in anticipation of an outbreak, preemptively outlining the quarantine procedure and highlighting the importance of prevention, including vaccination. 'Williston Basin School District #7 plays a very important role in the health and well-being of our students,' Douglas said in an email to CNN. 'Having vaccine-preventable diseases circulating within a school would lead to large numbers of school absences and adversely affect the health of our students.' 'While even a small drop in immunization rates can lead to outbreaks, unvaccinated students are at significant risk of serious illness and complications from measles, which are highly contagious and preventable diseases,' she said. 'WBSD #7 prioritizes student safety by taking measures to protect unvaccinated students and prevent the spread of illness to themselves, their families, and others and in order to do this, students must be excluded.' There have been at least 1,018 measles cases reported in the US in 2025, according to a CNN tally using data from state health departments and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC publishes data on measles cases each Friday, but it has stopped providing details on the specific number of cases in each state, and its national total does not always capture the latest updates from states. The vast majority of these cases – at least 845 – are associated with an outbreak centered in West Texas that has expanded to New Mexico, Oklahoma and possibly Kansas. Texas has reported 709 outbreak-associated cases, New Mexico reported 71 cases, and Oklahoma reported 17 cases – 14 confirmed and three probable – as of Friday. Cases in Kansas, which the state health department says may be linked to the outbreak, have reached 48 as of Wednesday. Experts say these numbers are all a severe undercount because many cases are going unreported. Since measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, 2019 is only other year in which there were more than 1,000 cases, driven by large outbreaks in New York City and a nearby suburb. There were 1,274 confirmed measles cases that year, according to the CDC, only about 250 more than have been reported so far in 2025. Nationwide, CDC data shows that 126 people have been hospitalized with measles this year – about 13% of all cases – and there have been three confirmed deaths associated with the large multistate outbreak: two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were unvaccinated. The vast majority of cases in the US this year have been in people who are unvaccinated; only about 4% of confirmed cases have been in people who had received one or two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to the CDC. There have been 14 total outbreaks this year, and 30 states have reported at least one case, according to the CDC.
CNN
09-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Measles outbreak in North Dakota prompts local health officials to quarantine unvaccinated schoolchildren
Measles cases continue to accumulate in the United States in what is already the second-worst year since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago. Now, a recent outbreak in one North Dakota county has led local health officials to quarantine nearly 200 unvaccinated students. North Dakota has reported nine measles cases this year, and a recent outbreak among schoolchildren in Williams County in the northwest part of the state has led local health officials to enforce a law that requires unvaccinated students to quarantine for 21 days after exposure to someone who has the virus. The move was taken by local public health officers in the Upper Missouri District Health Unit, and the state health department is assisting with mitigation efforts. On Tuesday, families of 188 unvaccinated students in the Williston Basin School District No. 7 received a letter informing them that their children would need to quarantine for three weeks. About two weeks earlier, district nurse coordinator Lynn Douglas had sent a letter to all families in anticipation of an outbreak, preemptively outlining the quarantine procedure and highlighting the importance of prevention, including vaccination. 'Williston Basin School District #7 plays a very important role in the health and well-being of our students,' Douglas said in an email to CNN. 'Having vaccine-preventable diseases circulating within a school would lead to large numbers of school absences and adversely affect the health of our students.' 'While even a small drop in immunization rates can lead to outbreaks, unvaccinated students are at significant risk of serious illness and complications from measles, which are highly contagious and preventable diseases,' she said. 'WBSD #7 prioritizes student safety by taking measures to protect unvaccinated students and prevent the spread of illness to themselves, their families, and others and in order to do this, students must be excluded.' There have been at least 1,018 measles cases reported in the US in 2025, according to a CNN tally using data from state health departments and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC publishes data on measles cases each Friday, but it has stopped providing details on the specific number of cases in each state, and its national total does not always capture the latest updates from states. The vast majority of these cases – at least 845 – are associated with an outbreak centered in West Texas that has expanded to New Mexico, Oklahoma and possibly Kansas. Texas has reported 709 outbreak-associated cases, New Mexico reported 71 cases, and Oklahoma reported 17 cases – 14 confirmed and three probable – as of Friday. Cases in Kansas, which the state health department says may be linked to the outbreak, have reached 48 as of Wednesday. Experts say these numbers are all a severe undercount because many cases are going unreported. Since measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, 2019 is only other year in which there were more than 1,000 cases, driven by large outbreaks in New York City and a nearby suburb. There were 1,274 confirmed measles cases that year, according to the CDC, only about 250 more than have been reported so far in 2025. Nationwide, CDC data shows that 126 people have been hospitalized with measles this year – about 13% of all cases – and there have been three confirmed deaths associated with the large multistate outbreak: two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were unvaccinated. The vast majority of cases in the US this year have been in people who are unvaccinated; only about 4% of confirmed cases have been in people who had received one or two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to the CDC. There have been 14 total outbreaks this year, and 30 states have reported at least one case, according to the CDC.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Vaccination clinics planned in northwest North Dakota as measles cases rise to 9
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways A nurse gives an MMR vaccine at the Utah County Health Department on April 29, 2019, in Provo, Utah. The vaccine is 97% effective against measles when two doses are administered. (Photo by) Five additional measles cases have been reported in Williams County, with health officials now concerned about community transmission, the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services said late Tuesday. The new cases bring North Dakota's total to nine. The newly confirmed cases are people who were unvaccinated and had no reported contact with people previously diagnosed, the department said. Four people diagnosed with measles were in Willison schools while infectious, according to a news release. Unvaccinated students should be excluded from school for 21 days under North Dakota Century Code, the department said. Staff without documentation of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine who were not born before 1957 should also be excluded. The department advised unvaccinated staff and children in the affected schools to stay home and monitor for symptoms. These are the affected schools and dates of exclusion: Missouri Ridge Elementary: May 7 – May 23 Williston Middle School: May 7 – May 21 Williston High School: May 7 – May 21 In addition, anyone who visited the Williston Walmart between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on April 29 is encouraged to monitor for symptoms and contact a health care provider if symptoms develop. Because of concerns about community transmission, health officials recommend that all residents and visitors to Williams County ensure they are vaccinated against measles. Immunization records can be reviewed at or by contacting a provider. The Upper Missouri District Health Unit is holding vaccination clinics at 110 W. Broadway, Williston, from 1-7 p.m. Thursday and 8:30 to 6 p.m. Friday. The department identified the first measles case on Friday, a Williams County child who was not vaccinated and believed to have contracted the illness from an out-of-state visitor. Four additional cases confirmed Monday were unvaccinated people who had contact with the child, officials said. For information about measles, vaccines or local clinic availability, contact the HHS Immunization Unit at 701-328-2378 or visit SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
