Measles takes a plane to Idaho, which has worst vaccination rate in US [View all]

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Health officials are now warning residents and travelers about the exposure while trying to directly notify passengers who shared flights with the infected person. In an announcement on April 9, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) said the infected person was at the Boise airport on March 29 between 1:30 am and 7:40 am while traveling through the area.

Measles symptoms—which begin with fever, cough, runny nose, and watery, red eyes—can develop between seven and 21 days after exposure, but typically start after 11 or 12 days. That means that for anyone infected during the airport exposure, the initial generic symptoms would likely have started over the weekend. The telltale rash of measles typically doesn’t appear until two to four days after those early flu-like symptoms. The rash begins on the head and moves down the body, while fever may spike to 104° F or higher. Infected people are infectious for four days before the rash appears and for four days after its onset.

Idaho is particularly susceptible to measles outbreaks. The state has the highest rate of non-medical vaccination exemptions in the country and, in turn, the lowest rate of vaccination coverage among kindergartners. In the 2024–2025 school year, 15.4 percent of Idaho kindergartners had an exemption that allowed them to skip the shot. Breaking those exemptions down, only 0.3 percent were for medical reasons, while 15.1 percent were non-medical exemptions.