Detecting Wild Measles Strains in Wastewater Samples
Does anyone have measles in your community?
How do you know if there are folks with measles in your town? In most cases, you have to wait and hope that public health professionals get a notice and then report it to everyone in the community.
There is another way though.
Detecting Wild Measles Strains in Wastewater Samples
As with many other infectious diseases, wild measles strains are now being tracked in wastewater samples in many communities throughout the world.
This includes communities that haven’t reported any cases of measles in the past month!
For example, while there was a report of mild measles in wastewater samples in Hollywood, Maryland around May 11, the last report of measles in Maryland was in March.
Likewise, no measles cases have been reported in Connecticut, one of the few states that hasn’t reported a measles outbreak this year.
Have you guessed what this means?
No, it doesn’t mean that folks who are getting vaccinated are shedding measles virus and that is what is being detected. The wastewater scans are detecting wild measles virus strains.
It means that there are people out there with measles that are not being detected and not being reported.
It means that cases of measles are likely being underreported.
But that’s no surprise to most of us.
And it shouldn’t be a surprise to you, either.
After all, who do you think is driving all of these outbreaks?
It no longer is just people traveling out of the country to high risk areas.
“Two new cases of measles were recently confirmed by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). The cases are unrelated and are Minnesota’s third and fourth confirmed measles cases in 2025.
The first case is a Washington County adult whose vaccination status is unverified. The individual was exposed during domestic air travel outside of Minnesota. The second case is an unvaccinated child from Dakota County who has not traveled outside of Minnesota in the last month and had no known exposures… According to disease investigators, the child was infectious while at the theme park inside Mall of America (MOA) on May 24.”
Health officials confirm new measles cases in Twin Cities metro area
More and more, we are seeing community spread and people are getting measles without known exposures or risk factors, except that they are unvaccinated.
People who risk having a life-threatening disease, risk starting a large outbreak that can expose those who are truly high risk, including children too young to be vaccinated, people who can’t be vaccinated, and those who are immunosuppressed.
And now we have another way to watch out for them…
References
Health officials confirm new measles cases in Twin Cities metro area https://www.health.state.mn.us/news/pressrel/2025/measles060225.html
Yolo County Resident Diagnosed with Measles https://www.yolocounty.gov/Home/Components/News/News/13957/4918