Should you be worried about measles?

Research shows that the U.S. is under that threshold. During the 2023–2024 school year, MMR vaccination coverage among kindergartners was 92.7 percent, down from 95 percent in pre-pandemic

years, according to CDC data. This translates to roughly 280,000 kindergartners who are at risk for measles. In some states, measles vaccine coverage among children is under 85 percent.

Vaccine misinformation is partially to blame for this dip, Stinchfield says. So is the pandemic, since many non-urgent doctor’s appointments were skipped or delayed, and so routine

vaccinations were missed. (The first dose of the MMR vaccine is typically given around the first birthday; the second dose is around kindergarten entry.)   If vaccination rates continue to

decline, measles could reestablish itself in the U.S., health experts warn. “Any kind of drop in our vaccine rates, we need to pay attention to and get them back up where they belong,” says

Stinchfield, who adds that grandparents can help play a role by talking to their children and grandchildren about vaccines. 4. MEASLES CAN BE DANGEROUS, EVEN DEADLY Schieffelin says a common

misconception is that measles isn’t a big deal, since virtually everyone used to get infected. But that is not the case. Common symptoms — which include fever, cough, runny nose — can cause

a person to feel “miserable,” says Stinchfield, who helped take care of hospitalized children during a large measles outbreak in Minnesota in the 1990s. Three to five days into the illness,

a rash breaks out and spreads from the top of the head down the body. At this point, a fever can spike to more than 104°F, the CDC says.   The thing with measles, though, is that it’s not

uncommon for the illness to turn severe. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the U.S. who get measles end up in the hospital, according to the CDC. Complications range from dehydration to 

pneumonia to encephalitis, or swelling of the brain.   Measles can also mess with your immunity to other illnesses, Stinchfield says — a phenomenon called immune amnesia. Young children are

at increased risk for these complications; so are older adults, Schieffelin says. “As we get older, we don’t tolerate [viruses] quite as well,” he says. It’s estimated 136,200 people

worldwide, mostly children, died from measles in 2022, according to a report from the CDC and the World Health Organization. 5. UNVACCINATED TRAVELERS CAN SPREAD MEASLES Most people in the

U.S. are protected against measles with the vaccine, but the virus hasn’t been eliminated worldwide. In fact, the global vaccination rate for both MMR doses hovers around 74 percent,

according to the CDC. In some countries, it’s as low as 66 percent. An unvaccinated traveler who picks up a case in another country can bring it to the U.S. and spread it to other

unvaccinated people, Stinchfield says. In a community with low vaccination rates, the disease will spread like wildfire, she adds. Measles “is still out there,” Schieffelin says. “And by not

being vaccinated, you really do run the risk of getting sick as well as your family members getting sick.”  _Editor’s note: This story, first published Jan. 24, 2024, has been updated to

include new information._