Seven confirmed measles cases in Franklin County have Dublin-area families watching closely as Ohio's third outbreak of 2026 reaches 180 cases across 15 counties.
The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) reported 47 new cases statewide in the week ending Tuesday, Sept. 15, up from 11 the week before, NBC4 WCMH-TV reported Monday, Sept. 21. About 90% of patients with measles are unvaccinated, Dr. Bryan Ghiloni, a family medicine physician at Mount Carmel Medical Group, told NBC4.
"That's an unprecedented jump … you look at that trajectory and it is concerning," Ghiloni said. "People can be contagious — they can spread the disease before they have any symptoms."
The surge dwarfs recent years. Ohio recorded one measles case in 2023, seven in 2024 and 45 in all of 2025, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. The 2026 total through mid-September is already four times the 2025 full-year count.
Wayne County in northeast Ohio is the current epicenter with 43 cases. Geauga County follows with 38 and Ashtabula County with 32, according to Cleveland 19. Of the 180 statewide cases, 169 originated within Ohio. Confirmed patients range from 15 months to 20 years old.
Why Dublin parents should pay attention
Franklin County already had a measles outbreak in February. The county's seven cases place it among the top eight affected counties statewide.
Ohio's kindergarten MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination rate stood at about 88% for the 2025-2026 school year, according to CDC data cited by The Post Athens. That falls well short of the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity and trails the national average of 92.4%.
Non-medical vaccine exemptions among Ohio kindergartners have climbed to nearly 5.5% for the 2025-2026 school year, more than double the 2.6% rate recorded before the pandemic, according to Hoodline.
School exclusion policy in effect
ODH Director Bruce Vanderhoff signed a public health order in February requiring unvaccinated students to be excluded from school for 21 to 25 days after a confirmed measles case at their school, according to Science-Based Medicine. Ohio school districts sent letters to parents in early September warning that children without two MMR doses face that exclusion.
Under Ohio Revised Code 3313.671, K-12 students must be vaccinated against 10 preventable diseases, including measles. Parents may opt out for medical reasons, natural immunity or reasons of conscience.
Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles, according to ODH. Complications are most common in children younger than 5, adults older than 20, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems. As many as one in 20 children with measles develops pneumonia, the most common cause of measles death in young children.
What to watch for
Symptoms include a rash, high fever, runny nose, cough, loss of appetite and red, watery eyes. They appear seven to 14 days after exposure but can take up to 21 days. The virus can survive in the air for up to two hours after an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Nationally, the CDC has recorded 3,471 confirmed measles cases in 2026 as of Sept. 17, the highest annual total since 1991.
The ODH dashboard is updated weekly. Dublin families can check their child's vaccination status through their pediatrician or the Ohio Department of Health's school immunization dashboard.
