{"id":18084,"date":"2026-04-21T16:27:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/?page_id=18084"},"modified":"2026-04-24T14:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:36:23","slug":"2-measles-cases-nw-region","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/public-relations-contacts\/2026-regional-news-releases\/2-measles-cases-nw-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Health Officials Investigating Two Confirmed Measles Cases in Northwest Region"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 21, 2026<br \/>\n<strong>Media Contact:<\/strong> Brookie Crawford, <a href=\"mailto:brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov\">brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Virginia Health Officials Investigating Two Confirmed Measles Cases in Northwest Region<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Virginia Department of Health is Working to Identify People Who Are at Risk<\/em><\/p>\n<p>RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 The Virginia Department of Health is reporting two confirmed cases of measles in residents of the Northwest Region. The patients are a pre-school age child (0-4 years) and a school-age child (5-12 years) who recently traveled together domestically. To protect the patients\u2019 privacy, VDH will not provide any additional information about the patients. Health officials are coordinating an effort to identify people who might have been exposed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listed below are the dates, times, and locations of the potential exposure sites in Virginia:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>KidMed Stafford Urgent Care, located at 20 Doc Stone Road in Stafford, between 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday, April 16.<\/li>\n<li>Grafton Village Elementary School, located at 501 Deacon Road in Fredericksburg\n<ul>\n<li>Monday, April 13 through Thursday, April 16<\/li>\n<li>Monday, April 20<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To date in 2026, Virginia has 19 reported cases of measles. Any additional exposure sites identified in Virginia will be posted to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/measles\/\">VDH Measles website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to Do If You Have Been Exposed to Measles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most people in Virginia have immunity to measles through vaccination, so the risk to the general public is low. However, <u>anyone<\/u> who was at the potential exposure sites at the times listed should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Report your exposure<\/strong> to VDH by completing this <a href=\"https:\/\/redcap.vdh.virginia.gov\/redcap\/surveys\/?s=KPHY4M4RYHWD9MT7\">short survey<\/a>. Public health officials will follow up with respondents if additional actions are needed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Find out if you have been vaccinated for measles or have had measles previously.<\/strong> Make sure you are up to date with the recommended number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/measles\/vaccines\/index.html\">measles (MMR) vaccinations<\/a>.\n<ul>\n<li>To check your immunization status, call your healthcare provider or request records through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/immunization\/request-immunization-record\/\">VDH Record Request Portal<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>If you have received two doses of a measles-containing vaccine, or were born before 1957, you are considered protected and do not need to seek post-exposure treatment at this time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>People who are not fully vaccinated or otherwise immune to measles should contact their healthcare provider or call their <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/health-department-locator\/\"><strong>local health department<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> People who are not immune to measles may qualify for post-exposure treatments. There is a small timeframe for these protective post-exposure treatments to be effective.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Watch for <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/epidemiology\/epidemiology\/epidemiology-fact-sheets\/measles-rubeola\/\"><strong>symptoms<\/strong><\/a><strong> of measles for 21 days after the potential exposure. <\/strong>Monitoring for symptoms is especially important for people who are not fully vaccinated or otherwise immune to measles.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>If you notice symptoms of measles, immediately isolate yourself by staying home.<\/strong> Contact your healthcare provider right away. If you need to seek healthcare, call ahead before going to your healthcare provider\u2019s office or the emergency room to notify them that you may have been exposed to measles and ask them to call the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/health-department-locator\/\">local health department<\/a>. This call will help protect other patients and staff.<\/li>\n<li>The most likely time\u00a0<strong>you would become sick would be between April 16 and May 11.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Contact your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/health-department-locator\/\">local health department<\/a> or email <a href=\"mailto:%20epi_response@vdh.virginia.gov\">epi_response@vdh.virginia.gov<\/a> to discuss any additional recommendations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>General Measles Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/measles\/\">Measles<\/a> is a highly contagious illness that can spread easily through the air when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes. Measles symptoms usually appear in two stages. In the first stage, most people have a fever of greater than 101 degrees, runny nose, watery red eyes, and a cough. These symptoms usually start seven to 14 days after being exposed. The second stage starts three to five days after symptoms start, when a rash begins to appear on the face and spreads to the rest of the body. People with measles are contagious from four days before the rash appears through four days after the rash appeared.<\/p>\n<p>Measles is preventable through a safe and effective MMR vaccine. Two doses of the vaccine are given to provide lifetime protection. Virginia has high measles vaccination rates, with approximately 95% of kindergarteners fully vaccinated against measles. However, infants who are too young to be vaccinated, and others who are not vaccinated, are at high risk of developing measles if they are exposed. Infants six months through 11 months of age who will be traveling internationally, or to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/measles\/data-research\/\">outbreak setting<\/a>, should receive one dose of MMR vaccine prior to travel. Talk to your healthcare provider if you have questions about the MMR vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about measles visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/measles\/\">www.vdh.virginia.gov\/measles\/.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"># # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 21, 2026 Media Contact: Brookie Crawford, brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov Virginia Health Officials Investigating Two Confirmed Measles Cases in Northwest Region Virginia Department of Health is Working to Identify People Who Are at Risk RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 The Virginia Department of Health is reporting two confirmed cases of measles in residents of the Northwest Region. The patients [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":444,"featured_media":0,"parent":16853,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-18084","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-measles"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Virginia Health Officials Investigating Two Confirmed Measles Cases in Northwest Region - Newsroom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/public-relations-contacts\/2026-regional-news-releases\/2-measles-cases-nw-region\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virginia Health Officials Investigating Two Confirmed Measles Cases in Northwest Region - Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 21, 2026 Media Contact: Brookie Crawford, brookie.crawford@vdh.virginia.gov Virginia Health Officials Investigating Two Confirmed Measles Cases in Northwest Region Virginia Department of Health is Working to Identify People Who Are at Risk RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 The Virginia Department of Health is reporting two confirmed cases of measles in residents of the Northwest Region. 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