MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Public Schools has confirmed that measles has been found within the district. Now health providers are asking families to get the vaccine they say saves lives.
Since May, MDH has tracked an outbreak consisting of 51 identified cases of measles, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. So far this year, the state has seen 59 cases in total. Not all of the cases have been from the school.
Lynn Bahta is a public health nurse at the Minnesota Department of Health and serves as an immunization clinical consultant.
"It's the metro area, and particularly in the Minneapolis area, although we've seen some in the Anoka area, some in Ramsey County," said Bahta. "We are seeing mostly children, especially kids under five, getting measles. But we're some kids as old as 10."
Minneapolis Public Schools wouldn't share more details, but MDH says they are currently working on contact tracing.
Bahta says she hopes cases will plateau, but knowing there are exposures in the school setting there may be more cases this week.
Dr. Stacene Maroushek is a pediatrician is an infectious disease expert with Hennepin Healthcare.
"I've seen fear from a lot of families," said Maraoushek. "I've seen ongoing vaccine declinations, which makes me sad."
She says as long as your kids are fully vaccinated from measles, they should be safe from severe illness. But, vaccination rates are declining.
In the the 2023-2024 school year the vaccine rate for Minnesota kindergarteners' measles was 87.1%, Compared to the 2019-2020 school year when 92.6% were vaccinated. M Health Fairview's medical director for urgent care, Dr. Charito Santos, says COVID is partially to blame.
"During the pandemic, which is that we were on lockdown, there was some difficulty in the access," she said. "Encouraging that vaccination is our best defense against measles."