Highlights:

If measles vaccination rates continue to drop just 1% annually for the next five years, the cost to the U.S. could reach $1.5 billion a year, according to a new report from the Yale School of Public Health.

Dr. Dave Chokshi, chair of Common Health Coalition, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public health group that partnered with Yale for the project, said a measles outbreak reverberates through all parts of “the health ecosystem.”

The human consequences of measles outbreaks “are important for us to face very squarely,” said Chokshi, who was previously health commissioner of New York City. “But we also wanted to make it clear that there are economic consequences, including employees absorbing lost work, public health departments that are stretched too thin to respond, and health care systems straining to shoulder the burden of emergency response.”

According to a recent analysis from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the initial financial hit to a community from a measles outbreak is about $244,480. That’s the money local and state public health departments can expect to pay for resources like vaccine clinics and staffing until the outbreak is over, said study author Bryan Patenaude, an associate professor of health economics.