It’s time to get up to date on vaccinations. And this time, it’s not a clarion call for COVID shots — but for immunization against measles, a serious disease if contracted, but wholly preventable with vaccinations.

This comes after Monday’s news of an unvaccinated Oahu male who was confirmed with measles upon returning from an international trip. And it puts a spotlight on the need for all, especially children, to get the MMR vaccination (measles, mumps and rubella combination) as a matter of routine childhood wellness visits.

The state Department of Education (DOE) has a vital role to play in helping to prevent spread of measles, a very contagious airborne disease that can cause serious health complications, especially in kids under 5 and in infants under 1. Hawaii law requires students to get the MMR vaccinations before attending school, and allows a three-month grace period to get caught up on shots — but unfortunately, that time frame was allowed laxity, with some schools being slow with follow-ups.

In February, the state Department of Health (DOH) revealed alarming data showing a spike in the incompletion rates for routine childhood immunizations against diseases such as measles and mumps. Pre-COVID, in the 2019-2020 school year, just 3.4% of schoolchildren had missed routine vaccinations or had incomplete records; this school year, however, that jumped fivefold to 18.6%.

Amid the flurry of issues schools faced returning to in-person learning, record-keeping on immunizations got too relaxed. Schools are legally required to report their data annually to the DOH in October and again in January. But in a February report, DOH noted that 100 schools, about one-quarter, had yet to provide their student vaccination reports this year.

Now that the return-to-campus has stabilized, school and health officials must redouble efforts to ensure that students are current with all required immunizations, using reminders that stress the public-health risks to all.

Also, up-to-date records can inform needed targeted outreach to students and families in those Hawaii public, private and charter schools that have had particularly high rates of unvaccinated students.

Unfortunately, a World Health Organization report found last July, the COVID pandemic has fueled the largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in three decades.

“The pandemic caused setbacks for childhood immunization programs worldwide,” said Hawaii Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Kemble in a Monday news release. “As a result, we are seeing increases in outbreaks globally, and sometimes outbreaks in the United States as well. We are very fortunate to have a safe and highly effective vaccine against measles.”

The tougher task now will be to get through to the “anti-vaxx” clusters, many of which claimed religious exemptions against vaccinations during the COVID era.

Public schools with high rates of unvaccinated students, for instance, have included Kauai’s Hanalei Elementary School, where 37% of students have religious exemptions; and Maui’s Haiku Elementary School, where 25% of students have exemptions.

So there’s clearly room for improvement, if parents can be convinced about the MMR shots, which have been used safely and successfully worldwide for decades.

The majority of Hawaii’s measles cases are either brought in by a visitor or by a returning resident who got infected while traveling, noted Ron Balajadia, DOH immunization branch chief. That’s important to note, and further drives the need for vaccination protection for the entire family, with summer travel on the horizon.

“This is a reminder to check your child’s immunization status and make sure they are up-to-date on all recommended shots,” advised Kemble, an infectious disease expert who completed her residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at UCLA.

Parents, listen to the doctor, for the sake of your keiki and your community.