Healthy Returns: What to know about the U.S. measles outbreak

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I’m here to bring you the latest on the measles outbreak in the U.S.

The nation declared measles eliminated 25 years ago, meaning there was no continuous transmission of the disease for more than a year thanks to a highly effective vaccine for it. But now, one of the worst outbreaks since then is centered in West Texas, with cases reaching into New Mexico and now Oklahoma. 

Here’s where those cases are: 

• There have been 259 confirmed cases of measles in the West Texas outbreak so far, and at least one unvaccinated child has died, according to the state’s health department. Most cases – 201 – have been in kids and teenagers.
• New Mexico has the second-highest number of cases at 35, and the outbreak has resulted in the death of an unvaccinated adult, the state said.
• There are so far four reported cases in Oklahoma, according to the state’s health department. 
• There have been a few isolated cases reported in more than a dozen other states, which don’t appear to be related to the Texas outbreak. 

The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. this year already surpasses the 285 reported nationwide in all of 2024, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. Still, the CDC says the nationwide risk of measles remains low and that vaccination is the key to prevention. 

But the problem is immunization rates for the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine – called MMR – have been declining in nearly every U.S. state since the Covid pandemic. 

Health policy and public health experts have told CNBC that the lower uptake of that shot and other routine childhood vaccinations could be due to several factors. That includes greater vaccine hesitancy due to misinformation and controversy around the Covid vaccine and more distrust of public health officials and their requirements, among other issues. 

In all four full school years since the pandemic began, the MMR vaccination rate has fallen below the “Healthy People 2030” target rate of 95%, according to CDC data. That refers to the level needed to prevent community transmission of measles, a highly contagious and deadly virus. 

Roughly 280,000 school children were unvaccinated and unprotected against measles during the 2023-2024 school year alone, the CDC said. 

Clusters of unvaccinated people within a specific community increase the risk of disease outbreak, health experts have told CNBC. For example, the childhood vaccination rate for measles in Gaines County, the epicenter of the current outbreak in Texas, is just below 82%.

A group of physicians believe that the national recommendation for the MMR vaccine should be updated, according to an article published in medical journal JAMA on Friday. 

The group, which includes former CDC director Rochelle Walensky, said the recommendations should include a third dose for infants 6 months to 11 months old who are traveling to any region with a higher probability of measles exposure. Notably, some local and state jurisdictions have already started to do that. 

The physicians wrote that “multiple recent US measles outbreaks, coupled with low vaccination rates, signal a growing domestic hazard.” 

“Modernizing vaccination recommendations… will better protect at-risk communities and the most vulnerable US population – infants – against measles,” they added. 

Infants younger than 1 year old face an increased risk of severe measles-related complications such as pneumonia, swelling of the brain and death, according to the group of physicians. 

Currently, the CDC recommends all children get two doses of the MMR vaccine. That starts with a first dose at 12 through 15 months of age, and a second dose at 4 through 6 years of age. 

One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective, the CDC says. There are only a few special cases for a third dose. 

Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who leads the Department of Health and Human Services, has been spreading false information about the MMR vaccine. 

Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, told Fox News last week that the MMR shot causes deaths every year and “illnesses that measles itself causes,” such as blindness and inflammation of the brain. 

But the Infectious Disease Society of America has said there have been “no deaths related to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in healthy individuals.” The organization said there have only been rare cases of deaths in immunocompromised children. 

Kennedy has also pushed unconventional treatment regimens for measles, including cod liver oil, which is rich in vitamin A. Health experts have said that those are not intended to treat measles. 

We will continue to follow the measles outbreak, so stay tuned for our updates. 

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

This is Ashley, reporting live from New York City! 

I’m at Google‘s offices today for the company’s annual health-care event called The Check Up. A number of Google executives, including its Chief Health Officer Dr. Karen DeSalvo, took the stage to talk about the company’s work in the sector over the last year. 

Last month, Google announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its Loss of Pulse Detection feature for its Pixel Watch 3, which can call emergency services when a person’s heart stops beating. During the event on Tuesday, Google said the feature will be available to users in the U.S. by the end of the month. 

The big theme of the keynote was AI, which is where Google has focused much of its health-care innovation efforts in recent years. 

The company’s work within the medical sector has evolved over time, especially as it struggled to nail down an enduring health-care business strategy. Google built out a formal health unit starting around 2018, but it was dissolved in 2021.

“With extraordinary advances in AI, we have an opportunity to reimagine the entire health experience,” DeSalvo said at the event.

Google announced TxGemma on Tuesday, which is a suite of models that could help speed up the drug discovery process. The company also highlighted its work on the protein-predicting model called AlphaFold, which earned Google Deepmind researchers Demis Hassabis and John Jumper the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year.

Read more about everything Google announced at The Check Up here. 

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.