State health officials Friday declared an end to the measles outbreak of spring and summer 2017. The outbreak that eventually sickened 79 people, mostly children under 10 years of age, began when the first case was identified April 11. The last case was identified on July 13.

Bringing the outbreak to an end required a major public health and community response. It involved significant resources of staff time, energy, expertise, laboratory capacity and outreach to the affected communities. It required significant collaboration among state and local public health agencies, health care systems, schools and child care centers and even work places, as well as the Somali community, officials said.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) estimated its costs for the outbreak response were more than $900,000 and Hennepin County estimated its costs at about $400,000. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Minnesota Patch, click here to find your local Minnesota Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Minneapolis' Somali community was hit particularly hard by the outbreak, where 64 of the 79 cases occurred, mostly in unvaccinated individuals. Vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at the start of the outbreak hovered around 42 percent among Somali Minnesotan 2-year-olds. That allowed the virus to spread more easily among children in the community. Related: Vaccinate Your Kids, MDH Says After 20 Measles Cases Confirmed

Under standard public health practice, the outbreak can be declared over if there are no new cases identified for 42 days, according to health officials. The incubation period for measles is 21 days, meaning that's how long it can take for someone who has been infected with measles to show symptoms. Health officials wait two incubation periods (42 days) out of an abundance of caution.

The outbreak was the largest measles outbreak in Minnesota since 1990 when 460 people became ill and 3 people died, according to a news release. In the 2017 outbreak there were:

More than 8,000 people exposed to measles

More than 500 people asked to stay home from school, child care or work because they were potentially infectious (unvaccinated and exposed to someone infectious)

22 people hospitalized

73 cases under 10 years old

71 of the cases unvaccinated for measles

70 cases in Hennepin County, but also three in Ramsey County, four in Crow Wing and two in Le Sueur counties. "This outbreak showed that preventing disease requires all of us working together," said Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger in a statement. "Public health is a community, collective endeavor. It's what we as a society do together to ensure the conditions in which everyone can be healthy."

Commissioner Ehlinger said MDH is committed to sustaining the momentum gained from working so closely with so many leaders and partners in the Somali community over the course of the outbreak to improve not just vaccination rates but other conditions affecting the health of the community.