First Coconino County measles case of 2026 confirmed in Page

WINDOW ROCK

Coconino County health officials announced Thursday that a county resident has tested positive for measles, marking the first confirmed case in the county this year and adding to a growing statewide and national caseload that has alarmed public health authorities.

Coconino County Health and Human Services identified three locations in Page, Arizona, where members of the public may have been exposed to the virus. The agency stated it is working with state and local partners to notify people who may have come into contact with the infected person.

The exposure sites and dates are as follows: Page High School on March 12 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:40 p.m.; the Safeway store at 650 Elm Street on the same date from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.; and Banner Page Hospital at 501 North Navajo Road on March 16 from 12:40 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.

People who were at Page High School or Safeway during those time frames should watch for symptoms through April 2. Those who were at Banner Page Hospital should monitor through April 6.

Health officials did not release the identity of the infected person.

Dr. Mary Poel, a pediatrician in Gallup, said the case should prompt families to check their vaccination status and stressed that the MMR vaccine is safe and highly effective.

“The measles immunization is really safe and that if they have one dose, usually it’s about 95% protective,” Poel said. “And if they’ve had two of them, it’s like 97% protective.”

Even in the small number of vaccinated people who contract measles, Poel said, the illness tends to be far milder.

“There’s a few people that might still get the measles even if they’ve been vaccinated, but usually they have a much less virulent, serious episode of measles,” she said.

Poel warned that the risks of measles extend well beyond the acute illness, pointing to the deaths of children during recent outbreaks in other states and to complications that can persist long after the infection clears.

“People don’t realize that the disease itself can be quite bad because we know that a couple kids in the first round in Texas and New Mexico, a couple of children died,” Poel said. “But also hearing loss and long term things that can attack the brain. So it’s not just getting through the disease, if they make it through the disease, but there can be some other long-term sequelae from the measles.”

Asked about the broader political climate around childhood vaccination, Poel noted that a federal judge had recently blocked changes to the childhood immunization schedule proposed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“They weren’t going to follow RFK’s because his recommendations weren’t based on science,” Poel said. “So basically, at least right now, the legal thing is that we’re back to the childhood vaccination regimen that we’ve always had before.”

Poel said the ruling was significant.

“A lot of the things that he wanted to get rid of, the judge got rid of it,” she said.

The Page case is the latest in what has become a sustained and accelerating measles resurgence in Arizona and across the United States.

As of March 12, a total of 1,362 confirmed measles cases had been reported nationally in 2026, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Arizona has been among the hardest-hit states.

The state’s 2026 total reached 56 confirmed cases as of mid-March, according to the CDC’s measles tracker and reporting by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Coconino County also recorded a measles case in late 2025, when a resident was diagnosed after visiting a hospital in Kanab, Utah. That case was linked to the larger border-region outbreak, which had reached 337 infections by early January.

Nationally, the vast majority of 2026 cases – 93 percent, according to the CDC – have occurred in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.

About 77 percent of cases have involved children and young adults up to age 19.

Measles symptoms typically appear seven to 12 days after exposure but can take as long as 21 days. Coconino County health officials said symptoms include a high fever above 101 degrees Fahrenheit, cough, malaise, conjunctivitis, or red watery eyes, runny nose and a blotchy rash that usually begins at the hairline and spreads down the body, sometimes involving the palms and soles.

The disease is one of the most contagious known to medicine.

The virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left a room, and roughly 90 percent of unvaccinated people who are exposed will become infected. About 30 percent of cases develop complications, which can include pneumonia, ear infections, encephalitis and, in rare cases, death, according to the CDC.

Anyone experiencing symptoms consistent with measles should self-isolate and contact a health care provider by phone before visiting a clinic or emergency room, officials said.

Those without a regular provider can call the CCHHS Health and Wellness Clinic at (928) 679-7222 to schedule an MMR vaccination or discuss next steps.

Additional information is available on the Arizona Department of Health Services measles page at azdhs.gov/measles.

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