The Great Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center is issuing an urgent public health alert warning of a looming measles outbreak across the Great Plains region and its tribal reservations.
Recent surveillance (May 6–11, 2025) has documented major clusters in the TX/NM/OK/KS corridor (845 cases), South Central Plains (709), West Texas (71), central Kansas (48), Eastern Oklahoma (17), Arkansas (6), and North Dakota reservations (11).
These alarming numbers coincide with chronically low MMR (measles–mumps–rubella) vaccination coverage among children in the Great Plains region: only 12.6 percent of those born in 2014, 14.4 percent in 2015, 17.5 percent in 2016, 19.6 percent in 2017, and 20.4 percent in 2018 have received both recommended doses by age five—far below the 95 percent threshold needed to halt transmission.
Dr. Meghan O’Connell, Chief Public Health Officer for the Great Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center, cautions that “our current vaccination rates leave our communities—and especially infants, elders, and those with compromised immunity—extremely vulnerable.”
The Great Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center says that Measles vaccination rates are extremely low in many reservation schools and that immediate action must be taken to head off pending outbreaks.
The Epi Cents calls on tribal health departments, co
mmunity leaders, and families to mobilize immediately: deploy mobile and reservation-based vaccine clinics; conduct school- and community-center immunization days; intensify case finding, testing, and contact tracing; and distribute culturally tailored education. “Measles spreads faster than we can respond,” Dr. O’Connell adds. “Every unvaccinated individual is a crack in our shield. We must close that gap now to protect our people.”
“Our vaccination coverage is dangerously low,” added O’Connell. “We’re nowhere near the 95% needed for herd immunity.”
Measles is very infectious. One person with measles can infect 12 to 18 other people. At least 95% of the population must have two doses of the MMR vaccine to create this protective firewall. Other viruses, like influenza, are less infectious and require far less coverage to stall.
