Lab Advisory: CDC Issues Alert for Increase in Global and Domestic Measles Cases and Outbreaks

On March 18, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) message to inform clinicians and public health officials of an increase in global and U.S. measles cases and to provide guidance on measles prevention. Clinical laboratories should review the Lab Tools for Measles for information on collecting and shipping specimens from suspected measles cases.

As a reminder, suspect and confirmed measles cases are immediately reportable to public health, given the need for rapid initiative of case and contact investigations to prevent further spread. Emergency after hours (24/7) on-call contact information for all states can be found at https://www.cste.org/page/EpiOnCall.

Learn more and sign up for updates at the CDC LOCS webpage: https://www.cdc.gov/locs/index.html.