A new case of measles has been confirmed in Polk County, the Polk County Health Department (PCHD) said in a news release on Wednesday. The new case brings the number of confirmed measles cases in Iowa so far this year to 50. The state only had nine confirmed cases in 2025.
The infected person in the new case is a child, according to PCHD. More than half the confirmed cases in Iowa this year have been in children and teens between the ages of 5 and 19.
The new case is the result of person-to-person spread of the disease. Person-to-person spread in Iowa, as opposed to cases of measles contracted outside the state, was confirmed by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (IDHHS) in an Aug. 17 news release about an outbreak of measles involving 12 people in southern Iowa. Person-to-person spread in the state is considered ongoing.
The best defense against person-to-person spread is herd immunity. But herd immunity requires 95 percent of a population to be vaccinated. According to HHS data, 83 percent of 2-year-olds in Iowa were vaccinated against measles in 2025. In the previous five years, only 2023 had a lower rate, when 82.3 percent of 2-year-olds received the MMR vaccine. The highest rate of MMR vaccination for Iowa 2-year-olds during that period was 2022, when it reached 84.8 percent.
In its news release, PCHD published a timeline of times and places in which the public may have come into contact with the infected persons.
Thursday, Nov. 5: Walmart, Ankeny (1002 National Dr), 5-8 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 6: Hy-Vee, North Ankeny Blvd (410 N Ankeny Blvd), noon-3 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 8:
UnityPoint Clinic Urgent Care, Ankeny, 10:10 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
Iowa Methodist Medical Center/Blank Children’s Hospital Emergency Department waiting room, 11:25 a.m.-1:35 p.m.
Blank Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, 11:30 a.m.-5:20 p.m.
Hallway from Blank Children’s Emergency Department to Blank Children’s inpatient elevators, 3:15-5:25 p.m.
Blank Children’s Hospital 4th floor, 3:20-10:45 p.m.
“Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases,” PCHD said. “It spreads through the air when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The virus can remain in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left an area. If an unvaccinated or non-immune person is exposed to measles, there is a 90 percent chance they will catch the virus.”
It can take 14 days for symptoms to manifest, and an infected person can spread the disease four days before the telltale rash appears. Symptoms of measles include fever, cough, watery eyes, runny nose, tiny white spots in the mouth and a rash that spreads from the head downward.
The PCHD announcement of the new case coincided with a meeting in Washington D.C. of Measles and Rubella Elimination Regional Monitoring and Re-Verification Commission of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The commission is considering the state of measles spread in the United States and Mexico, and will decide if they will lose their status as countries where measles have been eliminated.
In 2000, PAHO, a division of the World Health Organization, certified that measles had been eradicated in the United States. That meant new cases were in people who contracted the virus through travel and there was no person-to-person transmission. It had taken decades of hard work at the national, state and local levels for the U.S. to achieve that public health landmark.
The commission will make its decision based on genetic evidence that shows whether or not measles cases are part of chain of transmission produced by person-to-person contact. Experts told the New York Times that the genetic evidence shows three chains of transmission present in the country in July — two in Utah and one in Arizona — that were “seeded” by a measles outbreak in Texas in 2025. Cases in Iowa are part of another chain of transmission that includes Indiana and Pennsylvania, which can be traced back to an outbreak in Virginia earlier this year.
The commission is expected to officially announce its findings on Monday.
So far this year, there have been 5,400 confirmed cases of measles in the United States, the highest number of cases in 25 years. Last year, there were 2,286 confirmed cases. There have been eight deaths from measles in the U.S. this year.
Eight deaths are more than the combined total of all deaths from the measles in the U.S. between 2000 and 2024.
