Single measles case cost Mon County Health Department $15K

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — Managing a solitary measles case in April cost the Monongalia County Health Department approximately $15,000, according to a health department official.

Health officer Dr. Lee Smith told 12 News that cost includes 15 staffers at the health department spending 250 hours to manage contact tracing.

Smith said responding to this sort of outbreak is not something the department can prepare for in its budget.

“It is an unfunded mandate,” said Smith. “In the year 2000, the CDC said that measles had been eradicated in the United States. And here we are 24 years later and we’re victims of our own success. People do not want to get vaccinated with the intensity that they once did. And as a result, we see those emerging and return of infectious diseases.”

The U.S. has seen an uptick in measles cases in 2024, but this was the first case confirmed in West Virginia since 2009.

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