US measles cases surpass 700 with outbreaks in six states. Here's what to know

[Jilly_in_VA]

U.S. measles cases topped 700 as of Friday, capping a week in which Indiana joined five others states with active outbreaks, Texas grew by another 60 cases and a third measles-related death was made public.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in a televised Cabinet meeting Thursday that measles cases were plateauing nationally, but the virus continues to spread mostly in people who are unvaccinated and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention redeployed a team this week to the epicenter of West Texas’ monthslong outbreak.

The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024, and Texas is reporting the majority of them with 541.

Texas’ cases include two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children who died from measles-related illnesses near the epicenter of the outbreak in rural West Texas, which led Kennedy Jr. to visit the community Sunday. The third person who died was an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated.

Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma.


https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-texas-rfk-new-mexico-kansas-vaccine-e904ec9781f1d164c73afe4ab71774fe

Nice work, antivaxxers. Proud of yourselves now, or do you want to wait for polio?

[DonCoquixote]

1. I hate to sound mean, but

when I first read th article, I wondered where those states were: yup, mostly dumb old dixie and red states.

[GusBob]

2. The key distinction ,it seems, is rural

If it hits highly populated areas, what then?

[chouchou]

3. Went to Walgreens (Here in Sarasota) ..2 days ago. Piece of cake..took 4 minutes and Insurance paid for it.

....I was vaccinated (Measles) when I was 9 but, my doctor said there MIGHT be a little variable on this new strain.
She's a cool Doc.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Some things to keep in mind.

First, not only is measles highly highly highly contagious, but the contagion is during the 14 days prior to the spots breaking out. After the spots, the person is no longer contagious.

Another is that the two kids that have died so far (I hope I'm right that it's only two) were Mennonite. Mennonites don't believe in vaccination. Too bad for them, but all the more reason everyone else should be vaccinated.

Measles ONLY occurs in humans, so it would be possible to eliminate it entirely from the planet, as we did with smallpox. We were actually pretty close to that a few years back.

I strongly recommend everyone read "Booster Shots" by Adam Ratner, MD. It's mainly about measles, when it seems to have first shown up, how terrible the side effects can be, and so on. It also tells how we learned that it's contagious only before the spots.

I'm old enough to have had the measles as a child, and since I never knew or even new of someone who had complications, let alone died, I always thought it was a relatively trivial disease. Boy, was I wrong.

[Jilly_in_VA]

5. Don't put all Mennonites in the same basket

I live in heavy Mennonite country. Very heavy. We have all kinds, from the Old Order (horse and buggy), to in between (the women wear "uniform dress" and some kind of head covering, to the modern ones that you couldn't tell from anybody walking down the street. Most of the ones I know are from the latter two groups and they most certainly DO believe in vaccination! I don't know where you got your ideas but maybe you need to research a bit more and not make blanket statements.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. It has been reported over and over again

that the Mennonites in Texas, the ones with two children dead from measles, that they refuse vaccinations.

I am not making a blanket statement about all Mennonites. Just those ones in Texas whose children died.

[Jilly_in_VA]

12. They all

seem to have come from one congregation. So again, don't put them all in one basket. Your initial statement did just that.

[Meowmee]

7. Get your mmr booster while you still can 😀

[halobeam]

9. There's so much misinformation out, I had to look it up myself to be sure about recommendations for boosters

This seemed to clarify things enough for me.. maybe it'll help others.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/do-adults-need-a-measles-booster-an-epidemiologist-explains-who-is-immune


snip -Exceptions to these guidelines
There are two special circumstances where the previous recommendations may not hold.

First, if you were vaccinated between 1963 and 1967, one of the measles vaccines available at the time consisted of just proteins from the virus rather than a live, weakened version of it. Researchers soon realized this inactivated, or “killed,” vaccine was less effective and didn’t provide long-term immunity. Unless you know for certain you received the live vaccine, physicians and public health experts recommend that people vaccinated during those years get one dose of the live vaccine at some point.

Second, if you fall into a high-risk group – for example, if you are a health care provider, are traveling internationally or attending college, physicians and public health experts generally recommend getting a second dose if you have only had one.-

[Meowmee]

11. High risk groups are also high risk for severe outcome such as me

No way I will risk getting measles.. etc. I don't remember which one I had as a child. And vaccines are not 1 hundred percent, nor is immunity from having it. Can you get measles if you had it before and survived or had effective immunity from a vaccine? It is unlikely but not impossible. I posted a long post about this somewhere else here. 2 shots now are estimated to be 99% effective, so small chance depending on various things.

And mmr booster protects you against all three(measles/mumps/rubella). We got boosted for all the typical childhood vaccines except small pox. I had to get my polio booster vaccine at my doctor. In my state now, a booster is recommended if your vaccine was over ten years ago and you could be exposed. Polio virus has been detected in water in several counties near us. It is important to note also that there are different strains of polio. And viruses can mutate etc. Each virus is different. I had chicken pox twice as a child even though several told me it was not possible, lol. The second case was not less severe.

Article from 1925:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/1174163#:~:text=One%20attack%20of%20measles%20almost,instance%20in%20over%207%2C000%20cases.

[Demovictory9]

8. wow.

[HorsesflyHigh]

10. Figures, Ohio.