Chicago Pediatric Hospital Eliminates a Local Measles Threat

During a measles outbreak related to a migrant shelter in Chicago in the spring of 2024, months before an outbreak in West Texas, the infection prevention and control (IPC) team at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago coordinated all its relevant departments and prevented the disease from spreading among its patients and staff. 

In March 2024, after hearing about a positive measles case at the shelter, Lurie Children’s IPC team quickly established strategies to protect patients, visitors, and staff. They worked closely with the emergency department, immediate care, transport team, and other departments to adopt a standard operating procedure (SOP) to identify and isolate any patient suspected of having measles.

Additionally, communications among the Illinois Department of Public Health, hospital department leads, senior hospital leadership, and other stakeholders was key to the SOP’s success.

As a result, the 364-bed, non-profit hospital reported zero secondary cases of measles acquired in the hospital.

Measles was a palpable threat to Lurie Children’s patient population as 64 confirmed cases were reported in the city between March and April of 2024 and 10% (6 cases) of those cases were admitted to the facility. The SOP led to seventeen suspected cases placed in airborne isolation and eleven patients meeting the criteria for measles testing in the emergency department, resulting in eight patient admissions.

Lurie Children’s IPC team detailed its approach in a poster presentation (EP 54) A Pediatric Hospital’s Response to a Measles Outbreak in Chicago delivered at the 2025 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) Annual Conference in Phoenix.

“While measles swirled around us, the infection prevention and control team at Lurie Children’s led an effort that kept a highly contagious pathogen at bay and kept all of the patients, staff, and visitors in our hospital safe,” said Nancy Luosang, MPH infection preventionist at Lurie Children’s. “We maintained zero cases of healthcare-associated measles at the hospital because we were prepared.”  

“Lurie Children’s success in preventing a potentially lethal measles outbreak is a credit to its internal teams taking infection prevention seriously, and rejecting phony treatment claims and outside noise,” said APIC 2025 President Carol McLay DrPH, MPH, RN, FAPIC, FSHEA, CIC. “With an ongoing measles outbreak, resulting in over 700 cases across multiple states, IPC programs should model Lurie’s precautions to prevent additional cases of measles.”