Global to Local Measles Prevention Campaign Summary
Measles has been a major public health concern in Washington State this year. The first half of 2026 brought 45 confirmed measles cases in 8 counties, higher than the total number of measles cases annually in 2024 (6 cases) and 2023 (12 cases). The Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) led a measles prevention campaign focused on globally connected communities with low coverage of the MMR vaccine. The goals of the campaign were to:
- Increase MMR vaccine awareness and uptake.
- Improve recognition of measles signs and symptoms.
- Educate the public on when and how to seek care.
- Encourage isolation and quarantine to reduce spread.
The campaign ran in English, Marshallese, Somali, Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian languages from March – June 2026. DOH partnered with DH, a social impact marketing agency, to implement the campaign. We partnered with 11 community-based organizations (CBOs) to make community-specific, culturally resonant messaging. The CBO partners led social media and in-person health outreach activities, using the co-designed, translated educational resources. The campaign included statewide ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, radio, and broadcast TV, and light rail. DOH also worked with 8 diverse community media outlets to publicize news releases about measles.
The campaign resulted in 16 million impressions reaching more than 1.38 million people.
The following measles-related resources are available for measles prevention:
- The WA DOH measles toolkit includes printable and digital materials in multiple languages for health care providers and public health professionals to download and share with their clients and communities.
- The measles campaign created 12 in-language testimonial videos and 2 measles explainer videos in American Sign Language (ASL).
- WA DOH’s measles and MMR public webpages have been updated and translated into the top 15 languages used in Washington. Pages in languages other than English are available by clicking on the yellow button on the upper right side of the page.
Ukrainian measles prevention display in Eastern European grocery store.
The display shows a picture of a smiling young family, a Ukrainian message saying “if your family is vaccinated, you don’t need to worry about measles” and a QR code linking to the DOH measles webpage.
Daily page views of DOH’s measles webpages in Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian languages, showing expanded viewership during the campaign.
The graph shows <5 daily page views on most days in April 2026 before the campaign launched, compared to >150 daily page views on most days from May 5 – June 15, 2026, during the campaign.