A September case of measles identified in eastern Virginia triggered an expensive contact tracing effort in order to contain the highly contagious disease, according to recent testimony shared by Sen. Tim Kaine.
Kaine relayed the details during last week’s hearing of Dr. Susan Monarez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was recently fired for refusing to comply with vaccine directives issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On Sept. 3, the Virginia Department of Health diagnosed measles in a school-aged child who had recently traveled internationally. The child attended school for one day, Kaine said, and then visited a CVS pharmacy and two children’s hospitals in Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
Measles spreads easily through the air and can remain dormant for seven to fourteen days before symptoms begin to show after a person is exposed. Complications from measles can be deadly.
“In one day, a thousand Virginians were exposed to measles by this one child,” said Kaine. “The VDH coordinated with the health care community and the school district to contact trace 1,000 people, followed up with 800 people, including babies in the NICU too young to be vaccinated.”
Kaine said about 50 VDH staffers were tasked to work on contact tracing around the case. Exposure triggers a 21-day monitoring period, which will conclude in late September for most of the individuals exposed.
Kaine estimated it costs the state $223,000 to conduct the contact tracing for the Portsmouth case.
The child in the September case visited two locations of Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters: a Virginia Beach location and an emergency department in Norfolk. A hospital spokesperson said 39 patients in the hospital’s NICU were exposed. None has shown symptoms.
The spread of measles is preventable with what’s known as the MMR vaccine, which offers immunity against measles, mumps and rubella. According to VDH, Virginia has a 95% measles vaccination rate.
The September case was the fourth confirmed case of measles reported in Virginia this year. The state reported one case in 2024 and one case in 2023. An outbreak of 22 cases occurred in 2021 among unvaccinated Afghan refugees welcomed into Northern Virginia.
Virginia health experts say the cases represent a fairly normal measles case trajectory for a state that remains largely vaccinated.
“I think what we’ve seen in Virginia so far is fairly normal,” said Dr. Patrick Jackson, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia who specializes in infectious disease. “There is a lot more measles internationally, and so a lot of these sporadic cases that we get are folks who are either Americans, who are unvaccinated or folks from abroad coming to the States.”
During the recent hearing, Kaine expressed concern over cuts made by Kennedy that will affect Virginia: The Department of Health lost $425 million in federal funds that were earmarked for upgrading state epidemiology labs, COVID-related programs and vaccine programs. Kaine said 500 employees and contractors in Virginia have been laid off because of these cuts.
“This shouldn’t be happening,” Kaine said.
https://www.dailypress.com/2025/09/23/virginia-measles-exposure/
