State Epidemiologists are raising the alarm on the risk of rising measles cases.
Senior Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologist Jayne Griffith says that the state is tracking 24 confirmed cases this year.
She says that the condition can come with some serious side effects.
"Not eating, high fever, ear infections and some cases get pneumonia."
Griffith says that lower community immunity levels can allow the highly contagious virus to spread more easily that's why brining up vaccination levels in children is so important.
"The rates of two year old's are much lower than they have been even before COVID," says Griffith, " I don't want to say a specific figure because I don't know what it is exactly, but it somewhere in the 80 percent area. "
Griffith says for herd immunity to kick in against the infection the community need to maintain a 95 percent vaccination rate.
Herd immunity is is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a large percentage of a population becomes immune, either through vaccination or recovery from a prior infection making it difficult for the disease to spread.
Todd County Health officials in central Minnesota have recently flagged several suspected infections coming from the area, including one in an unvaccinated adult.
Griffith says she hopes ongoing vaccination efforts can successfully halt the spread.
