Three months to 2025, the number of measles reports in the United States has already surpassed the total amount of cases in 2024. The number of Yahoo News, using data from state and district health departments, sets the total number of reported cases in the United States on March 519, exceeding last year 285.
The largest number of cases is concentrated around a multi-state hearth that occurs in Texas, New Mexico and rather in Oklahoma.
In Western Texas, the cases of measles rose to 400 on Friday, a thorns of 73 cases as of Tuesday against the background of a deteriorating outbreak in the largest state of country in nearly 30 years. At least 41 of these patients are hospitalized. The outbreak also led to the death of an unvaccinated child in February, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Neighboring New Mexico has also reported 44 cases since Friday, the State Health Department said. On March 6, the agency announced that a deceased resident had tested positively for measles, but the official cause of death was still being investigated. The outbreak is focused most in the LEA County, with two cases in Eddie County.
Other recent cases have been reported in Kansas, where cases have doubled this week to 23, while health officials in Ohio have confirmed 10 new cases. One case was reported in Tennessee and in Minnesota was reported a hanging case after a person traveled to Washington, Colombia County, and visited numerous places in the nation’s capital while infected, starting on March 19.
Disease control and prevention centers have said that March 27 has been reported to measles in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Merland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, New York, Ohio, Penns.
Minister of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has an anti-vaccine history, advertises vitamin A as an effective treatment for measles and binds to burst with a bad diet and health in an interview with Fox News earlier this month. Weeks later, several patients in Western Texas are treated for signs of vitamin A toxicity.
RFK Jr. also wrote in an opinion published by FOX earlier this month that “all parents should consult their healthcare providers to understand their ability to get the vaccine against MMR.”
Kennedy stopped explicitly recommending the measles vaccine, but said “the vaccination solution is personal. Vaccines not only protect individuals from measles, but also contribute to the immunity of the community, protecting those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.”
Yahoo News answers some of the most often asked questions about the virus.
What should I know about measles?
Measles, also known as rubella, are one of the most contagious diseases in the world, whose symptoms include fever and rash. This can lead to serious health complications, especially in children under 5 years of age who have not been vaccinated.
How it distributes: Through the air, when an infected person breathes, cough, sneeze or talk. It is so contagious that nine out of 10 people exposed to the virus will become infected if not vaccinated, according to CDC.
The air droplets of the virus can remain in a room for two hours, even after the measles person has left the room, according to the clinic in Cleveland. The measles virus droplets can also land on surfaces and spread to other people in this way.
Measles can also be distributed by:
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Sharing food or drinks or kissing someone who has measles
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Trembling or holding hands or hugging someone with measles
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If someone touches a surface containing the virus and then touches the mouth, nose or eyes
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Pregnant women with measles can pass it on to their babies either during pregnancy or during lactation
Signs and symptoms: Measles symptoms can occur seven to 14 days after a person has contact with the virus. Common symptoms of measles include:
About three days after these first symptoms are launched, small white spots may appear inside the mouth.
Three to five days after the onset of initial symptoms, an infected person will develop a red, spots of rash that often starts from the head and moves on the body. The rash can last about seven to 10 days, according to the clinic in Cleveland.
Measles infected can spread the virus to other people four days before the rash occurs within four days after it disappears, says the National Institute of Health.
Without treatment: There is currently no cure for measles and the virus has to take its course, which usually takes 10 to 14 days. In general, health agencies say that the best measles treatment is prevention through the measles vaccine.
What leads to the most native measles?
Measles was declared eradicated in the United States in 2000, a feat achieved through vaccinations. Murbili can be transferred to the United States by unvaccinated travelers, including Americans, as well as foreign passengers who bring it back to American measles, can spread to non -vagsine individuals and can lead to outbreaks.
The last hearth in Western Texas is distributed mainly through a menonite community.
“Murbili is a great exploiter of non-vaguers,” Dr. Peter Hotes, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor Medical College and a NEWS Hospital for Vaccine Development Center, told Yahoo News. “If you have a significant population that is not vaccinated, then measles can be torn through these populations very quickly, because it is one of the most portable virus agents we know.”
Measles “has a reproductive number between 12 and 18,” Hotes said. “This means that an individual can on average another 12 to 18 non -vacinated individuals.”
I am an adult who was vaccinated as a child. Do I need a booster?
There are two types of vaccines that protect against measles given in the form of a shot:
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Vaccine against measles, mumps, rubella (mmr)
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Measles, mumps, rubella, Varicella vaccine (MMRV). Varicella is the chicken pox vaccine.
“Vaccines for MMR & MMRV usually protect people for life against measles and rubella; but mumps immunity can decrease over time,” according to the CDC website.
However, the CDC says that a certain type of inactive measles vaccine provided between 1963 and 1967 “is not effective”, which is why they advise certain adults to receive an amplifier.
“People who were vaccinated before 1968 with an inactivated (killed) measles vaccine, or measles of unknown measles, must be revaccinated with at least one dose of live measles vaccine,” said the federal agency on its website.
What other groups of people should be vaccinated with no immunity?
CDC recommends that children receive their first dose at the age of 12 to 15 months, with the second and last dose of 4 or 5 years.
Hotes emphasizes Americans to make sure the children are vaccinated. “It causes half a million deaths a year in the 1980s and 70s,” he says. “It was the leading killer of children worldwide.”
CDC says measles vaccination is especially important for adults who have no immunity data that include:
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Students in educational institutions after schools
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People of childbearing age before they become pregnant
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Groups with increased risk of mumps due to a focal of mumps
Regardless of age, Hotes says, “It’s never too late to move forward and vaccinate.”
If you cannot find your vaccination records, the Mayo clinic recommends talking to your doctor as a blood test can confirm whether you have immunity from pre -receiving the vaccine.
CBS News Medical, an associate of CBS, says there is no harm to receiving a measles booster if you are not sure. “We would actually advise to do, unlike receiving a blood test, to see if there are antibodies – just take a booster if you doubt,” she told CBS.
CDC also advises that some people should consult their healthcare provider whether to vaccinate, which includes people who have a weakened immune system due to illness or medical treatment or may be pregnant.
I was exposed to measles. What should I do?
CDC advises that if you have had some measles exposure and do not have measles immunity through vaccination or previous infection, “talk to your doctor about getting MMR vaccine”. The health agency says it is not harmful to obtain the vaccine after exposure to measles, mumps or rubella.
If you are confirmed that you have been exposed to measles, there are two types of prevention after exposure to the virus that “potentially will provide protection or change the clinical course of the disease”, according to CDC:
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One can get measles vaccine within 72 hours after the initial measles exposure
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The measles immunoglobulin can be administered within 6 days after exposure
My condition has no measles outbreak. Should I still worry?
Since measles is so contagious, doctors in countries without current outbreaks are concerned about unvaccinated persons who have no evidence of immunity.
“Although it is south and far, we know that measles is very contagious,” said Dr. Satina Whit, a family doctor in Northwestern medicine in Chicago, in front of CBS News.
Only last year, Chicago had her own outburst of measles. A total of 57 migrants in the shelter tested positively for measles in March and April.
Dr. Scott Gottlib, former Food and Medicines Administration Commissioner, told CBS News that he believes measles will spread beyond Texas and New Mexico.
“When you have so many viruses spread in this part of Texas and New Mexico, I think there is some inevitable that you will see cases exported to those countries where there are low vaccination percentages and you can see continuous spread throughout the country,” Gotlib said. He then listed some of the United States with low levels of vaccination: Idaho with 80%, Alaska and Wisconsin are about 84%, Minnesota at 87%, while states like Florida, Colorado, Oklahoma, Georgia, Utah are about 88%.
Why are people vaccinated too?
The measles vaccine is safe and effective. When two doses are given, the vaccine is 97% effective against measles. One dose is about 93% effective.
In the outbreak of Texas, five people who were vaccinated became measles.
Few people receiving two doses of the vaccine can get measles if exposed to the virus – about three in every 100, according to CDC.
“Experts are not sure why,” the health agency says. “It is possible that their immune system does not respond as well as the vaccine should be needed. But the good news is that fully vaccinated people receiving measles seem to be more likely to have a softer disease.”
What is needed to complete these outbreaks?
The CDC defines the measles epidemic as three or more related cases present in a particular geographical area. In order to complete the epidemic, a high percentage of persons eligible in the affected area must be vaccinated.
“The highly resistant coating of the output measles vaccine and the rapid public health response are crucial to preventing and controlling the cases of measles and foci,” according to CDC.
Gottlieb said that for measles, “the herd’s immunity is achieved by a vaccination rate of about 93% and 95%.”