Measles cases are soaring in West Texas, where the outbreak has led to the first death from the virus in the United States in a decade.
But, during a meeting this week with President Trump and other cabinet officials, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the situation was “not uncommon.”
“We have measles outbreaks every year,” he added. Mr. Kennedy has said in the past that immunizations against measles and some other infectious diseases are unnecessary and risky.
Public health experts say that while there are indeed cases of measles every year in the United States, the latest outbreak is due to children’s deaths and the outbreak has become increasingly frequent due to the decline in vaccination rates.
“While we certainly see cases of measles from time to time, we’re seeing outbreaks of this scale is a rarity,” said Jason Schwartz, associate professor of health policy at Yale School of Public Health. So far this year, at least 164 people have been ill with measles. This is above all the cases in 2024 and is higher than the 59 cases recorded in 2023.
How is a measles outbreak “normal”?
In 2000, it was announced that measles was announced from the United States, which was considered a landmark public health achievement achieved by the vaccine. Since then, cases have been made every year – often people who originate from traveling abroad to more common destinations of measles and bringing the virus back to their destinations.
But in the first decade after the phase-out, the virus has not spread beyond a few people, because most people in a given community have been vaccinated, experts said. However, changes have occurred in recent years. During the 2023-24 school year, measles vaccination rates were below 95%, which was a target rate of “group exemption” that could prevent the spread of the virus. KFF, a nonprofit health policy research group, said it was 28 states for the 2019-20 academic year.
Health experts say outbreaks should not occur in the United States. “Each outbreak shows that our public health defenses are different and poses serious risks to children,” said Dr. Jerome Adams.
However, lower vaccination rates make it possible for larger outbreaks to occur more easily. This was the case in Southern California in 2014 and 2015, when the outbreaks related to Disneyland grew to about 150, in New York in 2018 and 2019, when more than 600 cases occurred in New York City and another 300 were in Rockland County.
“Unfortunately, this is becoming a more common reality in the United States due to the reduced vaccination rate in our population.
How effective is vaccination? How safe is it?
The single-dose measles vaccine is called MMR as part of the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, and is 93% effective against measles. The U.S. Children’s Vaccine Schedule recommends two doses, a total of 97% efficiency.
If some people who have been fully vaccinated (one in 100) still develop measles if they are exposed to the virus. But their symptoms are usually much milder, says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan. She added that some people think it means the vaccine doesn’t work, but that’s not the case.
“It takes you out of the hospital, it takes you out of the morgue,” she said. “That’s what the measles vaccine does.”
The measles vaccine has been a special target of vaccine suspicion, as research that has now linked it to autism. However, over 60 years of use, the vaccine has proven to be extremely safe and efficient, and has studied thousands of children.
Is the spread of the virus inevitable?
Measles is a very contagious virus. After the infected person left the room, it lingers in the air or on the surface for several hours. And it is still more common in other parts of the world.
“This creates an environment that creates ignited,” said Dr. Schwartz. But that doesn’t mean that a large-scale outbreak is inevitable in the United States or that measles is widespread.
“Fuel is uninoculated,” he said.
In Gaines County, Texas, the current outbreak is centered at the center, with a vaccination rate in kindergartens at 82%. (Because school-age children are the focus of community vaccination work, the vaccination rate in kindergartens roughly has community interest rates.
As vaccination rates drop, Dr. Ratner said: “I think we will have more block counties.”
How serious is measles disease?
By 1963, measles infected between 3 million and 4 million people when the first measles vaccines were licensed, killing nearly 50,000 hospitalizations and 400 to 500 deaths in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The risk of measles infection is sometimes ignored as time goes by, and how far away most Americans are from measles,” Dr. Schwartz said.
Measles usually start with fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes, and rashes that usually appear first on the face and then spread downwards.
Among pregnant women, about 20% of unvaccinated people are hospitalized in the CDC’s complications, and their immune system and infants and young children are still developing, with their immune systems still developing.
“This is not a common cold,” Dr. Handy said.
According to the CDC, up to 1,000 children in every 20 children infected with measles develop pneumonia, and one in 1,000 children can cause brain swelling, which can lead to blindness, deafness, or seizures. In rare cases, measles can also cause a progressive and deadly neurological disease that occurs years after infection, Dr. Ratner said.
One to three deaths per 1,000 children infected with measles.
Today, measles still kills about 100,000 people around the world every year (most of them children).
Dr. Handy, who has children, said measles is the concern of her doctors and parents.
“I know what to worry about,” she said. “Measles scares me.”
Katherine Pearson Contribution report.
