In 2025, health officials in the United States recorded nearly 3,300 cases of measles. Recent figures show the number of measles cases this year have already surpassed 1,300. Molly Howell is Director of Disease Control and Forensic Pathology for the North Dakota Health and Human Services. Howell says 26 measles cases have been discovered in North Dakota this year. The majority of those cases were detected in Pembina County. Howell says even with “contact tracing,” efforts to determine the source of the infections is difficult…
“For every individual that is reported to us as having a positive laboratory test for measles, we interview those individuals and try and determine where they were in the 21-days prior to their illness. We also ask where they were when they were contagious, which is the four days before the rash started until four days after, so we can notify close contacts or other people they may have been exposed to.”
Howell says one area looked at as a possible source is the recent surge of measles cases in southern Manitoba. Howell says while there is a regional tie, there is no definitive answer…
“Manitoba is close to Pembina County, obviously, but South Carolina is having a large outbreak of measles, as is Utah. So it could also be somebody passing through or visited. We, at this point, probably won’t know the source of the outbreak in Pembina County.”
In response to the Pembina County outbreak, the state is recommending an accelerated schedule of measles vaccine for people living in or visiting Pembina County.
