A case of measles has been reported in Leon County, home of the state capital of Tallahassee, according to state health officials.
A person between the age of 25-29 acquired the disease outside of the country in June, according to the Florida Department of Health (DOH) Reportable Disease Frequency Report.
This is the third case of measles in Florida this year. A request for more information is pending with the Florida Department of Health.
Measles is considered one of the most contagious infections for humans. If a person with measles comes in contact with a group of unvaccinated people, there is a 90% chance of the unvaccinated person becoming ill, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
In April, a Broward County child between the age of 0 (used to refer to newborns) and 4 contracted measles from outside of the U.S.
The month before, a high schooler at Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Miami-Dade County was diagnosed with the highly-contagious disease.
Earlier this year, a link to DOH’s reportable diseases report, which tracks the spread of infectious diseases across the state’s 67 counties, was removed from DOH’s main website, according to a story in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. According to the article, published on May 9, the last time that chart was available was in March.
A DOH spokesperson said the website was getting upgraded at the time.
Last year, a measles outbreak in Miami-Dade resulted in nine infections. DOH’s response at the time was criticized after Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo contradicted federal and medical professional guidance to contain the spread.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, only 88.1% of kindergarteners in Florida were vaccinated against measles in 2023-2024. Herd immunity for measles requires a 95% vaccination rate.
As of June 24, the CDC reports a total of 1,227 confirmed measles cases across 36 states. There have been 23 outbreaks reported in 2025, and 89% of confirmed cases (1,088 of 1,227) are outbreak-associated, according to the CDC.
Measles cases nationwide may be hitting plateau
The USA TODAY reported on June 25 that officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the measles outbreaks may be hitting a plateau
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time on June 25 after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired all 17 original members on June 9, replacing them with members that critics have called unqualified. Some of the members, like Kennedy, have a history of anti-vaccine sentiments, prompting backlash that had experts and organizations calling for a delay in the meeting.
The new ACIP met anyway on Wednesday for the first part of a two-day meeting. During this time Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, provided updates on communicable disease outbreaks the CDC is currently monitoring in the U.S. Of all confirmed measles cases, he said, 89% of them are associated with the outbreak, which was centered heavily in the southwest, with Texas reporting 750 cases across 35 counties and New Mexico reporting 81 total cases as of June 25.
“There’s some really good indicators that we have hit a plateau, the cases are definitely decreasing,” he told the committee. “As we are seeing fewer cases in the southwest, we continue to see global introductions come into the U.S., which thankfully to date have mainly been short, terminal trains of transmissions as opposed to more sustained transmissions we saw in the southwest.”
Overall risk to the U.S. population is low, he said, though health agencies will continue to watch transmissions and communities at higher risk closely.
USA TODAY contributed to this report. Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Measles in Florida: New case in Leon County, home of Tallahassee, third in state this year
Reporting by Ana Goñi-Lessan, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
