The Clark County Center for Community Health in Vancouver, Wash., is pictured Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
Measles cases are once again on the rise in Clark County. Six new infections of the virus were identified on Friday by county health officials. The recent cases total nearly half of all those identified in the Southwest Washington county this year.
The cases announced Friday follow a seventh case identified on July 22 at the Vancouver Clinic Salmon Creek. Officials said the new exposures occurred in private locations and were not related to the Vancouver Clinic case. So far, one individual has been hospitalized.
“No one should feel like ‘Well, I’m sure it’s not in my network,’” said Clark County Infectious Disease Director Kim Toevs. “Everyone could potentially be exposed to it.”
The seven total cases were among unvaccinated children under the age of 18. There has been a total of 15 measles cases in Clark County in 2026.
Measles is a highly contagious virus that’s spread through the air when a person sneezes or coughs. People under the age of five, those with compromised immune systems or those who are pregnant are at the highest risk of complications from the virus.
Complications can include ear infections, pneumonia, and inflammation of the brain, which can cause brain damage. Unvaccinated people are at the highest risk of getting infected.
Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles, according to Clark County Public Health.
Just seven months into 2026, there have been more measles cases across the country than in all of 2025, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. States including Utah, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia are combating large outbreaks.
Clark County was the site of a measles outbreak in 2019. At the time, public health officials recorded 71 cases, not including additional cases in Oregon and King County, Washington that were linked to the local outbreak.
Nearly all of the cases in that outbreak involved children, the majority of whom were unvaccinated. One person was hospitalized at the time.
According to Marissa Armstrong, the public health department’s communications manager, the local infections so far in 2026 are the highest annual number since the 2019 outbreak.
With an increase in cases throughout the region, Toevs said it’s especially important for those who may be sick to call medical staff before entering a health care facility to avoid exposing more vulnerable people who are being cared for.
“They’re set up to really carefully make sure that you don’t expose any other patients or staff or visitors to infection,” she said, “but they need to know before you show up and enter.”
