Ottawa County reports measles case

SANDUSKY — The Ottawa County Health Department is tracking a measles case that made a student in the Put-in-Bay school system ill. "The Ottawa County Health Department, in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Health, is notifying the public of one confirmed case of measles identified this week in Ottawa County," the health department stated in a news release issued Friday. "At this time, this does not constitute an outbreak, as an outbreak is defined as more than one confirmed case. The individual associated with this case is no longer infectious, and no additional cases have been identified," the news release read. The health department noted it has completed contact tracing and described risk to the health department as low. The health department did not identify the location of the case, but, in a letter sent Tuesday to parents, the superintendent of Put-in-Bay's school system, Scott Mangas, reported it was one of the district's students. "We are writing to inform you that a student in the Put-in-Bay Local School District has been diagnosed with measles. The student is currently receiving appropriate care and is not attending school," Mangas wrote. The school district is working closely with Ottawa County's health department, Mangas wrote. Jerry Bingham, Ottawa County's health commissioner, confirmed that the school district has been cooperative. Bingham said he couldn't release the age of the student or state whether the student was vaccinated. But Bingham said most of the students in the small school district had already been vaccinated. All of them are now vaccinated against measles, Bingham said. "That's the best defense against measles, to be vaccinated," he said. The Register phoned the school district office but was told that only the superintendent could speak for the district and that he was not in the office. Mangas did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment. The CDC says that Ohio has had 11 measles cases so far in 2026 and had 40 cases in 2025. "As of March 19, 2026, 1,487 confirmed measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026," according to a CDC website tracking the disease.