HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB) – Connecticut’s first measles case of 2026 was reported by public health officials on Monday.
The state Department of Public Health said the case was confirmed in an unvaccinated adult from Hartford County.
The DPH said the Connecticut resident recently internationally travelled and began showing symptoms of measles after the return home. Their symptoms included fever, sore throat, cough, runny nose, diarrhea, and rash. The adult was hospitalized in stable condition.
The international travel was not associated with the World Cup.
The DPH did not get more specific than that in terms of the patient.
It said so far this year, there have been 2,073 nationwide cases. The country is on pace to exceed 2025’s total case number of 2,288, health officials warned.
Vaccination rates and concerns
Connecticut has the highest vaccination rate in the country at just over 98 percent; however, doctors said they want that number to reach 100 percent as cases across the country continue to appear.
“The truth of the matter is with decreased vaccination rates, that is what we’re seeing,” said Dr. Ulysses Wu, Hartford Healthcare director of infectious diseases. “I’m not going to say the advent of airplanes, but airplanes have made the world a much smaller place. So, it is easy to go into a measles transmission area or go to an area where vaccination rates are not as high and bring it back.”
Wu said doctors used to refer to measles as a “zombie disease” because the two-dose vaccine essentially eliminated it in the U.S., but in recent years it has made a resurgence.
“Vaccination continues to be the best way to protect yourself and your family from measles,” said DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD. “One dose of measles vaccine is about 93 percent effective, while two doses are about 97 percent effective. Being vaccinated helps us all protect those who matter most.”
The DPH said Connecticut is one of the last states in the country and New England to confirm a measles case in 2026.
In the last five years, Connecticut has only had two positive cases of measles.
Both patients were unvaccinated and just returned from international travel.
“The people that we need to reach, we can’t necessarily keep saying the same thing over and over and over, that these complications can happen, people do die, you can transmit it to other people. It is highly, highly infectious and the vaccine is safe,” Wu said.
Symptoms and prevention
Wu said symptoms can show up even 10 years later.
“It can manifest very much like a flu-like symptom where you have fever, you have cough,” he said. “And then the rash, like I said, you can be contagious before the rash even appears. It’s like somebody pouring a can of red paint over you and that that’s the direction that it distributes in.”
Measles is a highly contagious disease that can spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nine out of 10 unvaccinated individuals who encounter an infected person will become infected with the measles virus.
The disease is most dangerous for children under the age of 5. About one in five unvaccinated people in the U.S. who get measles end up being hospitalized.
Children should typically receive the first dose of the vaccine around the time they turn one, but families planning international travel should consult their doctors about earlier vaccination.
Hartford resident Minerva Newman said she hopes this is a wake up call for people to get vaccinated.
“We don’t need anything else now here. We don’t need anything else. We just don’t,” she said. “I hope they take it seriously.”
More information on measles in Connecticut can be found on the DPH’s website here.
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