Measles cases in the U.S. are spreading beyond mostly schoolkids and their families.
At least 12 people have tested positive for measles at Ave Maria University, a private Catholic college near Naples, Florida, NBC affiliate WBBH of Fort Myers reported Tuesday. Three people were taken to a local hospital.
A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was confirmed to have measles after traveling internationally, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said. In January, Clemson University in South Carolina confirmed a case of measles in an “individual affiliated with the University.”
It takes only three cases of the extremely contagious virus to become an outbreak. And outbreaks are increasing across the U.S. So far this year, at least 17 states have reported cases of measles.
The first cases at Ave Maria University were reported Jan. 29, according to WBBH.
Josephine Miller, a junior at Ave Maria, told WBBH she thought initial case counts were an underestimate. “I’m sure there’s a lot more. A lot of my friends have said people have come down with the sickness.”
Neither Ave Maria University nor the Florida Department of Health in Collier County responded to NBC News’ requests for information.
On Sunday, university officials sent a letter to students, reviewed by NBC News, saying that the Florida Department of Health had deployed a team to the school for contact-tracing and to “manage response efforts.”
The state’s health team “has indicated these measles cases most likely originated with a student’s holiday travel from another state,” the letter, signed by Ave Maria University dean of students Daniel Lendman, said.
Measles outbreaks nationwide
The South Carolina Department of Public Health reported Tuesday that another 29 people have been infected in the last few days, with 354 still in quarantine. Most of the 876 total cases in South Carolina are among young children and teens in Spartanburg County.
Ongoing outbreaks in Utah and Arizona have sickened at least 505 so far, according to reports from those states’ health departments.
And health officials in California are watching for potential cases after a child visited Disneyland on Jan. 28 while contagious with measles. No cases linked to the exposure had been reported as of Tuesday.
A 2014-2015 outbreak associated with Disneyland ultimately sickened at least 125 people in seven states.
The South Carolina outbreak is now the nation’s largest since the virus was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. Texas had reported 762 cases in 2025 before that outbreak ended in August.
Symptoms of measles can include:
- Headache and high fever that could reach 104 degrees.
- Cough, runny nose.
- Red, watery eyes.
- Tiny white spots inside the mouth.
- A red, splotchy rash that begins on the scalp and travels down to the neck, trunk, arms and legs.
About 1 in 10 measles cases require hospitalization. Three people in the U.S., including two young girls, died of measles last year.
