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 U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine.
The Virginia Democrat relayed the details during the Wednesday 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-age child who had recently travelled 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 14 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 [Virginia Department of Health] 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 [neonatal intensive care unit] too young to be vaccinated.”
Kaine said that about 50 staffers with the Department of Health were tasked to work on contract 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 cost 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: the hospital’s Virginia Beach location and an emergency department operated by the hospital group in Norfolk.
The spread of measles is preventable with what’s known as the MMR vaccine, which offers immunity against measles, mumps and rubella. According to the state Department of Health, 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.
The first case was traced to Woodbridge in April from a child who had recently travelled internationally. A second case was identified in Charlottesville in a teenager who had travelled internationally through the Charlottesville airport in May. A third was identified in another child who was exposed to the teenager and also traced to Charlottesville, according to the Department of Health.
From those cases, Department of Health contact tracers followed up on exposures in a Charlottesville ice cream shop, a Lowe’s Home Improvement store and a Goodwill. The Department of Health did not immediately return a request for comment on how many individuals were exposed overall.
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.”
After the first identified cases this spring, state epidemiologist Dr. Laurie Forlano urged Virginians to get vaccinated.
“Vaccination remains our best defense against measles and is safe and highly effective at preventing people and preventing outbreaks,” Forlano said in a statement released from the department.
According to tracking by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in 2025, the United States reported the highest number of measles cases since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.
As of Sept. 19, the tracker counts 1,491 cases nationwide. The CDC now says large outbreaks have become more frequent, especially in close-knit communities with low vaccination coverage. Most of this year’s cases have been linked to outbreaks in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The outbreak began in late January and ended in August; two school-age, unvaccinated children died due to complications from measles, according to Texas health officials.
Jackson said he’s concerned about the “degradation of the Centers for Disease Control.” The West Texas outbreak might not have gotten so large had the CDC had more resources, Jackson said.
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.
Luca Powell (804) 649-6103
lpowell@timesdispatch.com
@luca_a_powell on X
The business news you need
Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.