Health professionals express concern over rising measles cases

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A dangerous and contagious disease is a growing concern among the medical community the past few years.

Measles cases have continued to increase not only in Kentucky but across the nation, with records continuously being broken in regards to infection rates. Health professionals are growing increasingly concerned about vaccines rates, citing the declining rates as a major reason for the increase in cases.

One Med Center doctor says that Kentucky has seen a significant decline in vaccinations since the beginning of the 2020s.

“If we talk about Kentucky, our vaccination rate went down significantly, in 2020, 2019 and 2020. It was, if I remember, was, around 93%. And now in 2024, 2025, it’s 86.9. So we need the 95% people vaccinated, against MMR to prevent the transmission,” said Dr. Jimikumar Patel, a pediatrician and neonatologist with Med Center Health.

Patel says that the MMR vaccine, which cover measles, mumps and rubella, is one of the safest vaccines an individual can receive as it was first introduced in the early 1960s and has been proven to drastically reduce rates of infection.