VANCOUVER, Wash. - Measles infections are once again on the rise in Clark County, where health officials identified six new cases of the virus on Friday, accounting for nearly half of the county's cases this year, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
The cases announced Friday follow a seventh infection identified July 22 at the Vancouver Clinic Salmon Creek. Officials said the new exposures occurred in private locations and were not related to the clinic case. So far, one person has been hospitalized.
All seven cases involved unvaccinated children under the age of 18, bringing the county's total for 2026 to 15. Marissa Armstrong, the public health department's communications manager, told OPB the local infections so far this year are the highest annual number since the county's 2019 outbreak, when officials recorded 71 cases, most of them unvaccinated children.
Measles is a highly contagious virus that spreads through the air when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Children under five, people with compromised immune systems and pregnant women face the highest risk of complications, which can include ear infections, pneumonia and inflammation of the brain that can cause brain damage. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97 percent effective at preventing measles, according to Clark County Public Health.
The local increase mirrors a national trend. Just seven months into 2026, there have been more measles cases across the country than in all of 2025, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with large outbreaks in states including Utah, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Clark County Infectious Disease Director Kim Toevs urged anyone who may be sick to call medical staff before entering a health care facility, to avoid exposing vulnerable patients. "No one should feel like 'Well, I'm sure it's not in my network,'" Toevs said. "Everyone could potentially be exposed to it."