The Connecticut DPH confirmed this week that we had our third case of measles in the state this year. An adult with a history of international travel and unknown vaccination status was hospitalized with high fever. The incubation period is usually 7-14 days, but can be up to 21 days and patients with measles are contagious for about 4 days after the rash appears, so it will be about 4 weeks before we know for sure if it has spread to other patients. Fingers crossed, but the prior cases in Connecticut have all been isolated.
The news can sometimes be frightening and our social media feeds can sometimes be filled with information that is inaccurate and even false. I wanted to provide some context for these events and some links for people that are looking for more information.
Measles is Rising Nationally
Measles is certainly not the most deadly infection we vaccinate against. The main problem with measles is that it is highly contagious. In fact, it is one of the most contagious diseases we know. If vulnerable people stand in a room with a measles patient, 9 out of 10 may get sick. (We call that the attack rate. In contrast, for influenza the attack rate is 1 out of 10.) If a patient with measles walks through a room, the virus can stay in the air for up to 2 hours and people coming through that space can get infected hours later!! This means that a single case can quickly lead to 9 more, and each of those to 9 more, and very quickly you have hundreds and thousands of cases. Even if there is only one death for every 1000 cases, pretty soon you have children (and adults) dying of a preventable disease.
Which, of course, is exactly what we saw in Pennsylvania this week. The Department of Health there confirmed 2 measles related deaths earlier this week, one of whom is reportedly a baby too young to be routinely vaccinated. And there are reasons to believe this is going to get worse. Nationally, we are seeing the highest number of measles cases in 35 years. So far in 2026, over 2800 cases have been reported. Before the vaccine was widely available, the US saw about 500 deaths per year from measles. About 20% of cases are sick enough to end up in the hospital, with high rates of pneumonia and encephalitis. Studies show that people who get measles can lose large portions of their stored immune memory (called immune amnesia), becoming once again as vulnerable as newborns to common diseases and illnesses they had previously been immunized and protected against. Rarely, measles patients can die many years after the illness from a fatal degenerative brain disease for which we have no treatment, as happened to a California child last year.
Vaccines are Our Best Defense
The GOOD NEWS is that Connecticut overall has very high vaccination rates, the highest in the nation at over 98%, largely due to very strict school and daycare requirements. So when measles cases come into our community, they typically hit a wall of immunity and cannot spread. That is our primary source of protection.
It is generally thought that vaccine coverage needs to be above 95% to prevent spread. The national average right now is about 92%, but there are regions much lower than that. Pennsylvania’s vaccination is typical of the national average. In Idaho, the estimated rate of measles vaccine is 75%! Even in Connecticut, we have individual schools with very low vaccine coverage. There are schools in Stamford and Bridgeport and Manchester reporting MMR vaccine rates of less that 80%, which is very concerning. We are better positioned than most of the country, but we are by no means out of the woods here.
The other GOOD NEWS is that we have a very safe and effective vaccine to prevent measles called the MMR. So much has been written about this that I do not want to just rehash it all, but to be very clear: The vaccine is very safe. There have been no documented deaths associated with the MMR vaccine in healthy children. Zero. It is certainly NOT a “lethal” vaccine. (There have in fact been some rare cases of death in severely immunocompromised patients, which is why it is not recommended for those patients.) The MMR vaccine does not cause autism. Many large studies have been performed which demonstrate this point. The MMR vaccine does not cause measles. It contains a live virus which has been weakened so that it triggers an immune response, but not an actual infection. Nor can it spread to others. There has never been a documented case of measles from someone who received the vaccine.
Like all vaccines, the MMR can sometimes cause a fever, in this case 1-2 weeks afterwards in 10% of children. About 1 in 3000 (0.03%) will develop a febrile seizure as a result, although it is important to remember that the overall rate of febrile seizures in children is 4%, so the actual rate of febrile seizures associated with the MMR vaccine is lower than the rate associated with fevers from other sources. Febrile seizures are usually due to a viral infections in children and, although frightening, are generally brief and benign without long term consequences. Unlike measles itself which has high rates of brain injury resulting from encephalitis, causing lifelong disability as well as seizures. The risks of measles as a disease far outweigh any risk associated with the vaccine. If you are looking to reduce the risk of febrile seizure (let alone the risk of measles), getting the vaccine is overwhelmingly the safer choice.
All of which is why we recommend the MMR vaccine so strongly to all our patients that are eligible to receive it. Typically the vaccine is given as two doses after 1 year of age. For people traveling to areas of high disease transmission, a single dose can be given to patients as young as 6 months of age, but persistent maternal antibodies can interfere with the long term response so these children will still need their usual dose after 1 year of age.
THANK YOU for taking the time to read all of this, and hopefully the informational links are helpful. Please feel free to call the office with any questions.