WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - State officials on Thursday confirmed a Worcester County resident recently contracted measles, marking the first known case of the virus in Massachusetts since early 2020.
The state Department of Public Health said the adult resident recently traveled internationally and was diagnosed in early July.
Officials said people who may have been exposed to measles as a result of this case had already been contacted as of Thursday morning and were given “appropriate public health recommendations.”
“Measles is a highly contagious, airborne disease, which has increased worldwide, including here in the United States and in neighboring states in New England,” said state Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein in a statement.
Goldstein said cases of measles have been reported in 30 states since the beginning of 2023 and urged people to get vaccinated against the virus.
“Vaccination is the best way to protect against measles,” he said.
Officials did not say whether the Worcester County resident who contracted measles was vaccinated.
Though officials gave no indication that the cases were linked, this week’s announcement in Massachusetts follows a series of warnings about confirmed measles cases in Vermont and New Hampshire in recent months.
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services as recently as Tuesday of last week urged residents to check their measles immunity status after an unvaccinated person contracted measles after coming into contact with an international traveler who also tested positive.
New Hampshire officials said the latest infection in their state expanded an ongoing measles cluster to three cases and provided a list of locations where the person with measles traveled while they were infectious.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said large measles outbreaks are ongoing in Europe and other parts of the world and urged anyone who does not know their measles immunization status to contact their healthcare provider to get vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control reported 167 measles cases in the US in 2024, as of Thursday. That figure already surpassed the annual number of nationwide cases in every year since 2019.
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