April 18 (UPI) -- Michigan health officials have confirmed the state's first measles outbreak of the year and its first outbreak of the highly contagious disease since 2019.
The announcement comes as the United States is has seen spiking measles cases this year among the unvaccinated.
The Michigan Department of Health Services said in a statement Thursday that an measles outbreak, defined as three or more infections, has been confirmed in Montcalm County, located northeast of Grand Rapids.
The county has a total of three cases, which brings the state's total to seven, it said.
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The outbreak is linked to an outbreak of hundreds of cases in Ontario, Canada, and is not associated with any other cases in Michigan, it said. The identities of the patients and their vaccination status were not made public.
"This outbreak underscores how contagious measles is and how quickly it can spread," Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, said in a statement.
According to state health statistics, nearly a quarter of Montcalm residents have not received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
"The MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine remains our best defense, and two doses of MMR offer 97% protection against measles," Bagdasarian said.
"We urge all Michigan residents to check their vaccination records to ensure they are up to date with the MMR vaccine."
Michigan confirmed its first measles infection of the year and the first since July of last year on March 14. Health officials said the patient was an adult with recent overseas travel. Their vaccination status was unknown.
There have been hundreds of confirmed cases of measles in the United States this year.
According to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 712 confirmed measles cases and three deaths in 24 states as of April 10.
There have been seven outbreaks of three or more cases so far this year, accounting for 93% of all measles cases.
Regarding the vaccination status of the patients, 97% were either unvaccinated against measles or their vaccination status was unknown.
The vast majority of the cases were confirmed in West Texas.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services on Tuesday, it has confirmed 561 measles cases since late January, up 20 cases from four days earlier.
Two of the three deaths caused by measles this year occurred in school-aged children in Texas who were not vaccinated and had no known underlying conditions, state health officials said.
The virus has been spreading predominantly among unvaccinated children and youth in Texas, where school-age children can be exempt from mandatory vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs.
More than 360 of Texas' cases come from Gaines County, where nearly 18% of K-12 students were exempt from at least one vaccine, making it one of the counties with the highest exemption rates in the state. At on Gaines County school, nearly half of all students were exempted from at least one vaccine.
In 2024, there were a total of 285 measles cases throughout the United States.
Since 2000, only 2019 saw more measles cases than this year, with 1,274 infections, according to the CDC.
