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This year is shaping up to be one of the worst for measles in decades in Michigan, according to the state’s chief medical executive, with nine measles cases and one outbreak confirmed in the state in the first four months, part of 800 confirmed cases nationwide.
Nearly half of Michigan’s nine cases are associated with the outbreak in Montcalm County, where four cases are linked to travel and to each other. There have been two cases in Ingham County. Oakland, Kent and Macomb have each had one case.
Nationally, two unvaccinated school-aged children have died from measles in Texas, as well as one unvaccinated adult in New Mexico, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I can’t emphasize how worrisome it is for those of us who work in public health or in health care,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive. “We already have 800 cases of measles … just in the first four months alone. And if we continue on at this pace, this will be the worst year for measles that we’ve seen since before measles was declared eliminated in 2000.”
Michigan’s most recent measles case, the second one in Ingham County, involves a 1-year-old boy who was exposed to the county’s first case. Ingham County and state health officials were notified Wednesday and said there was an exposure at Lansing Urgent Care – Frandor, 505 N. Clippert Street.
The child was vaccinated as appropriate for his age and had mild symptoms. No information was released about the vaccination status of the first case.
“We understand that news of another case may cause concern in our community,” said Ingham County Medical Health Officer Dr. Nike Shoyinka in a press release. “However, this child’s vaccination status helped lessen the severity of illness, and early isolation significantly reduced the risk of transmission. This case highlights the importance of timely vaccinations and swift public health response.”
A potential measles case involving two exposures at restaurants in Lansing and Orion Township is currently under investigation, according to the Barry-Eaton District Health Department.
Declining vaccination rates
Declining vaccination rates during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of misinformation and disinformation, and fewer public health resources are all factors contributing to the uptick in cases, Bagdasarian said.
“A lot of that had to do with misinformation that was spreading about vaccines, you know, as a result of all of the politicization of the COVID-19 vaccine,” Bagdasarian said. “There was already this decline in vaccinations, and we’ve really seen a persistence in that vaccine hesitancy.”
The percentage of toddlers aged 19 to 36 months with at least one dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine fell from 85.3% in January 2020 to 80.2% in January 2025, according to data from the Michigan Care Improvement Registry.
Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing infection, while one is 93% effective against measles, according to the CDC. The first dose is typically administered between the ages of 12 and 15 months, and the second between the ages of 4 and 6 years.
“We’ve seen a persistence in distrust of science, of government, of public health, and that’s leading us to see a resurgence of not just measles, but other communicable diseases as well,” Bagdasarian said.
At the same time, public health officials have had difficulty accessing databases run by federal partners, she said.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that we also are seeing a lack of, or change in, federal guidance and attitude around communicable diseases, at the same time that all of this is happening,” Bagdasarian said. “We’ve seen a shuffling of information on the website with a more prominent role of advice about Vitamin A, rather than advice about vaccines, which we know are the single greatest preventative measure we have for diseases like measles.”
Connie Johnson, the communications director for the group Michigan for Vaccine Choice, said there are outbreaks of viral infections like measles in Michigan and the U.S. every year.
“And every year we are asked to respond to ‘outbreaks’ of less than a few hundred sick individuals,” Johnson wrote in an email.
Less monitoring
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services terminated some CDC and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grants last month, cancelling $380 million allocated to Michigan.
As a result of the cuts, some local positions dedicated to monitoring and investigating reportable diseases such as measles were eliminated. Oakland County lost five contracted public health workers whose job was to help with disease investigations and outbreak responses in long-term-care facilities.
The Mid-Michigan District Health Department, which serves Montcalm County, where Michigan’s first measles outbreak since 2019 is underway, similarly lost $375,000 from an Infection Prevention and Healthcare-Associated Infections Response Support grant.
The grant was intended to support staffing, personnel time, travel expenses, equipment and supplies, and professional development activities for staff working on infection prevention and control and health care-associated infection investigations and responses, according to correspondence from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Brady Guilbault, public information officer for the Mid-Michigan District Health Department, said there are no public exposure sites for the cases associated with the outbreak in Montcalm County.
“Right now, we are definitely moving rapidly,” Guilbault said. “We’re in contact and working with those who are affected. So, yeah, we are doing everything that we can.”
The health department is encouraging children and adults to make sure they’re up-to-date with the measles vaccine and is hosting two free, walk-in vaccine clinics on Friday in Edmore and Tuesday in Carson City.
Angela Bailey, director of Kids “R” Kids Childcare and Learning Center in Montcalm County, said she was aware of the outbreak in the county but wasn’t aware of any cases in the area.
“I just pray that, you know, all the kids stay healthy and it goes away,” Bailey said. “I don’t have really any concerns. I mean that could be a different story tomorrow… Of course, if you notice a kid running a fever or sick, you send them home.”
In Michigan, parents can obtain non-medical vaccine waivers for their children if they first receive education about the benefits of vaccination and the risks of disease from their local health department. Otherwise, immunizations are required for childcare, preschool and school. Bailey said she’s only had two kids come through her day care with waivers in 17 years.
‘Whatever needs to be done’
Public health officials will do “whatever needs to be done” if Michigan faces more measles cases and outbreaks this year, said Bagdasarian, the state’s medical executive.
“It is always harder to do a difficult job when you have fewer resources, and if there are further impacts to funding, if there are further impacts to CDC staff, it is going to impact us,” Bagdasarian said.
Contact tracing for measles is very labor-intensive and expensive, Bagdasarian said.
The cost of a public health response to a single measles case ranges from $5,655 to $181,679, according to the CDC. This represents the personnel hours required for contact tracing and the coordination of Post-Exposure Prophylaxis, or efforts to protect or modify the clinical course of disease. The cost of one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is just over $26, according to the CDC.
The state’s last outbreak was in 2019, which was also a bad year for measles, Bagdasarian said, when there were 46 cases, 42 of which were in Oakland County alone. Luckily, some of the same measures adopted to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, including social distancing, masking and not traveling, also curbed measles, she explained.
But public health has become a victim of its own success, she said. Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, and many people and health providers don’t remember how terrible the outbreaks are, Bagdasarian said.
Measles infection can cause serious illness and require hospitalization, according to the CDC. One in every 1,000 cases will likely develop acute encephalitis, or swelling of the brain that can cause permanent damage. Between one and three of every 1,000 children who contract measles will likely die from respiratory and neurologic complications, according to the CDC.
“Because people don’t remember how terrible this disease is, I think it makes it easier to say no to the vaccine,” Bagdasarian said.
The state’s health department has been trying to educate residents and providers about measles and make sure kids are up to date with their immunizations before 2025, Bagdasarian said.
“We sent out a notice last Friday to every single licensed health care provider in the state telling them to be on the lookout for measles, to watch videos, to brush up on their measles knowledge, to remind their patients who needs to get immunized, to remind their patients not to come into waiting rooms and emergency rooms without calling ahead if they think they have measles,” Bagdasarian said.
The health department is counting on residents to tell providers when they are ill and on the providers to inform public health officials, she said.
“Measles is so incredibly transmissible — it can remain airborne for up to two hours — that the amount of contact tracing requires a lot of legwork, it requires a lot of really in-depth interviews,” Bagdasarian said. “In a time where we have fewer resources than ever, there are folks who are working tirelessly to make sure that measles is not spread further, and it’s a very labor-intensive and cost-intensive process.”
She likened the spread of measles to a wildfire. There is a lot of variability between communities in Michigan in terms of vaccine levels, she said. If a case occurs in a community with a low vaccination rate, there will likely be an outbreak, she said.
“Whether or not an ember will result in another wildfire depends on where it lands,” Bagdasarian said, “and if it lands on a pile of kindling, there will be another wildfire.”