2nd Person Dies US Measles Outbreak, Unvaxed Adult New Mex; Cases in other States, Canada, CDC Guidance

[appalachiablue]

BBC News, March 7, 2025. Ed. 🥼

The measles outbreak is mostly in New Mexico and Texas.
The disease has also been found recently in AK, CA, FL, GA, KY, NJ, NY, PA, RI and Canada.
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A measles outbreak in the American southwest has killed a second person, an unvaccinated adult, New Mexico health officials have said.
The fatality comes roughly a week after measles took the life of an unvaccinated child in nearby Texas, the first US death from the disease since 2015. Measles, which was considered "eliminated" in the US in 2000, is spreading quickly in Texas, with the state identifying 198 cases as of Friday, nearly 30 more since the state's last report on Tuesday.

In the same span the number of cases in neighbouring New Mexico tripled, to 30.
The disease has also been reported in other states and across Canada, as well. The person who died in New Mexico was a resident of Lea County, about 50 miles (80km) from Gaines County, Texas, where the outbreak appears to be centred. Officials did not provide the person's sex or age. One in every five measles cases requires hospitalisation and about three in every 1,000 cases results in death, the New Mexico health department said on Thursday.

The current outbreak killed a healthy but unvaccinated six-year-old in Texas, state officials said on 27 Feb. While the disease was declared eliminated 25 years ago, the US often sees outbreaks, which are defined as three or more related cases. Still, the two deaths are jarring to many in a country that, before last week, had not recorded anyone killed by measles since 2015. The 2015 death was the first one attributed to measles in the US since 2003.

Three months into 2025, the total number of reported infections in the US has already climbed above 220. There were 285 cases over the entire year of 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The CDC has said it is monitoring the current outbreak, which is believed to have started in a rural Mennonite community in Texas with low vaccination rates. While the outbreak is mostly occurring in Texas and New Mexico, measles has also recently been found in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington according to the CDC...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2nzyjgrwxo
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- CDC, Expanding Measles Outbreak in Texas and New Mexico and Guidance for the Upcoming Travel Season, Centers for Disease Control
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The risk for widespread measles in the United States remains low due to robust U.S. immunization and surveillance programs and outbreak response capacity supported by federal, state, tribal, local, and territorial health partners.

Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination remains the most important tool for preventing measles. To prevent measles infection and spread from imported cases, all U.S. residents should be up to date on their MMR vaccinations, especially before traveling internationally, regardless of the destination.

Background. As of March 6, 2025, a total of 222 measles cases have been reported by twelve U.S. jurisdictions this year: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington; 201 of which occurred in New Mexico and Texas.

Most of the 222 cases are among children who had not received the MMR vaccine. There have been three outbreaks, with an outbreak defined as three or more related cases, reported in 2025, and 93% of cases are outbreak-associated. For comparison, 16 outbreaks were reported during 2024 and 69% of cases were outbreak-associated.

.. Measles is a highly contagious viral illness that typically begins with fever, cough, coryza (runny nose), and conjunctivitis (pink eye), lasting 2-4 days prior to rash onset. Measles can cause severe health complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), and death.

The virus is transmitted by direct contact with infectious droplets or by airborne spread when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes.

Measles virus can remain infectious in the air and on surfaces for up to 2 hours after an infected person leaves an area.

Infected people are contagious from 4 days before the rash starts through 4 days afterward. The incubation period for measles, from exposure to fever, is usually about 7–10 days, and from exposure to rash onset is usually about 10–14 days (with a range of 7 to 21 days)...
https://www.cdc.gov/han/2025/han00522.html
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- CDC. Interim Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations for Measles in Healthcare Settings. *MASKS, more...
https://www.cdc.gov/infection-control/hcp/measles/index.html

[sheshe2]

1. Wow.

One in every five measles cases requires hospitalisation and about three in every 1,000 cases results in death,

And we have an anti-vax HHS head. What could possibly go wrong.

Thanks for the OP, appalachiablue.

[appalachiablue]

2. Serious for real. More dangerous with our anti vax Health 'Czar.' Take care, Vax & Mask Up folks.

Thanks for posting and stay well!

[appalachiablue]

3. How Measles Hacks the Body--and Harms Its Victims for Years

(DU Cross- Post) - How Measles Hacks the Body—and Harms Its Victims for Years

The virus is the most contagious in the world, exploiting the human body's immune system to spread with extreme agility and harming its victims for years.

It’s 2019, and all over the world measles is once again splotching across headlines. An ongoing outbreak in the Philippines has so far infected 4,300. In Ukraine more than 15,000 people have caught the disease since December, the country’s largest epidemic since the invention of vaccines. Madagascar is having its own worst outbreak in decades, with more than 50,000 cases since October, including 300 deaths.

The numbers in the US are smaller, for now, due to high vaccination rates nationwide. But in isolated pockets of the country where anti-vaxx sentiment is high, the disease has come surging back. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently tracking just over 100 cases across five outbreaks in Washington, New York, and Texas.

Among airborne respiratory pathogens, measles is an elite virus—the most contagious disease in the world. If you give this virus a lung, it’ll take a town. A cough from an infected person on a subway car would spread the disease to 90 out of 100 unprotected people. The virus stays alive, airborne outside the body of its human host, for up to two hours. For years scientists puzzled over how exactly measles achieves its contagion-in-chief status. But advances in microscopy and genetics have finally begun to illuminate what makes the virus so damn catchy...
https://www.democraticunderground.com/114236771
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(DU Cross Post): Measles cases reported in New Jersey, Kentucky amid ongoing outbreak in Texas, Source: abc news, Feb. 28, 2025.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143406709