Ohio kindergarten vaccine rates continue trending down amid first measles case in state

The percentage of Ohio kindergarteners who are up-to-date on all recommended vaccines continues to fall, an alarming development in light of the serious measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, the state’s health director, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, said during a Tuesday press conference (Source: “Ohio kindergarten vaccination rates drop amid measles outbreak concerns,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 18).

The percentage of Ohio kindergarteners who are up to date on all recommended vaccines is 85.4% for the 2024-25 school year, down from 86.2% in the previous year, he said. The percentage of Ohio students who were up-to-date on the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine dropped from 89.2% in the 2023-24 school year to 88.3% in this most recent school year.

Those state-wide numbers are lower than the state’s MMR vaccination rate of 92.5% for the 2019-2020 school year, and the national rate of 92.7% in the 2023-24 school year, Vanderhoff said.

Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases, and it can be deadly. More than 100,000 people across the globe died from the disease in 2023, according to world health data. A total of 378 confirmed measles cases have been reported in the United States, according to national data. The first case in Ohio this year, in Ashtabula County, was reported earlier this week.