Public health officials say that Maryland’s high vaccination rate keeps most residents protected, but the unvaccinated population is still at risk.
Health officials have confirmed three measles cases in Maryland this month, but say it’s not time to panic about an outbreak given the state’s more than 96% vaccination rate against the highly transmissible virus.
But with outbreaks occurring in other states, experts are urging Marylanders to make sure that they are up to date with their vaccinations, to protect vulnerable populations and ensure that measles stays manageable in the state.
“What we’re seeing now with three imported cases, that doesn’t concern me. It’s a reflection of what’s happening globally and people traveling,” said Dr. William Moss, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“What would concern me is if we started seeing more locally acquired cases where people who did not travel acquired measles in Maryland,” Moss said.
The Maryland Department of Health announced on March 9 that a Howard County resident who had traveled internationally had contracted measles.
Two other international travelers, this time from Prince George’s County, also caught measles while abroad, the health department reported Thursday.
While all three cases were connected to Washington Dulles International Airport, the Prince George’s cases are not related to the Howard County case, according to the health department. And the department said none of the Maryland cases are related to ongoing outbreaks identified in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, some of which have led to fatalities.
But out of “an abundance of caution,” the agency issued a list of potentially exposed flights, Metro lines and hospitals where the public might have been exposed to one of the Maryland cases.
“Measles cases occur sporadically in Maryland, with one case of measles identified in Maryland earlier this year [the March 9 case], one in 2024, one in 2023, and no cases from 2020-2022,” the department said in a statement Thursday.
