The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024, with Texas reporting the majority of them: nearly 500. The cases include two young elementary school-aged children who were not vaccinated and died from measles-related illnesses near the epicenter of the outbreak in rural Texas, which led Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to visit the community.

Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. The virus has been spreading in undervaccinated communities. The third person who died was an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated.

The multi-state outbreak confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said last week that cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.

Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.

How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?

Texas’ outbreak began more than two months ago. State health officials said Friday there were 59 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing the total to 481 across 19 counties — most of them in West Texas. The state also logged 14 new hospitalizations, for a total of 56 throughout the outbreak.

More than 65% of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus stated spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county now has logged 315 cases since late January — just over 1% of the county’s residents.

New Mexico announced six new cases Friday, bringing the state’s total to 54. New Mexico health officials say the cases are linked to Texas’ outbreak based on genetic testing. Most are in Lea County, where two people have been hospitalized, and two are in Eddy County.

Thursday’s death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Kennedy. Health officials in Texas said the child did not have underlying health conditions and died of “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure.” A child died of measles in Texas in late February — Kennedy said age 6 — and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult on March 6.

How many cases are there in Kansas?

Kansas has 24 cases in six counties in the southwest part of the state as of Wednesday. Kiowa and Stevens counties have six cases each, while Grant, Morton, Haskell and Gray counties have five or fewer.

The state’s first reported case, identified in Stevens County on March 13, is linked to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks based on genetic testing, a state health department spokesperson said. But health officials have not determined how the person was exposed.

How many cases are there in Oklahoma?

Cases in Oklahoma remained steady Friday: eight confirmed and two probable cases. The first two probable cases were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, the state health department said.

A state health department spokesperson said measles exposures were confirmed in Tulsa and Rogers counties, but wouldn’t say which counties had cases.

How many cases are there in Ohio?

Ohio reported one new measles case Thursday in west-central Allen County. Last week, there were 10 in Ashtabula County in the northeast corner of the state. The first case was in an unvaccinated adult who had interacted with someone who had traveled internationally.

In central Ohio, Knox County officials reported two new measles cases in international visitors, for three cases in international visitors total. Those cases are not included in the state’s official count because they are not in Ohio residents. A measles outbreak in central Ohio sickened 85 in 2022.

Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?

Measles cases also have been reported in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases. The agency counted six clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025 as of Friday.

In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles. So far in 2025, the CDC’s count is 607.

Do you need an MMR booster?

The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.

People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.

Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.

A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.

Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.

People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.

What are the symptoms of measles?

Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.

The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.

Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.

How can you treat measles?

There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.

Why do vaccination rates matter?

In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”

But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.

The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.

The post The US has three measles-related deaths and hundreds of cases. Here’s what to know appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Distrust, misinformation and delays because of the holidays and bad weather have combined to produce what authorities say are alarmingly low COVID-19 vaccination rates in U.S. children ages 5 to 11.

As of Tuesday, just over 17% were fully vaccinated, more than two months after shots became available to the age group. While Vermont is at 48%, California is just shy of 19% and Mississippi is at only 5%.

Vaccinations among the elementary school set surged after the shots were introduced in the fall, but the numbers have crept up slowly since then, and omicron’s explosive spread appears to have had little effect.

The low rates are “very disturbing,” said Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director for the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “It’s just amazing.”

Parents who hesitate “are taking an enormous risk and continuing to fuel the pandemic,” Murphy said.

Hospitalizations of children under 18 with COVID-19 in the U.S. have climbed to their highest levels on record in the past few weeks. Many have other conditions made worse by COVID-19, though many aren’t sick enough to require intensive care.

The low vaccination rates and rising hospitalizations are “a gut punch, especially when we’ve been working so hard to keep these kids well,” said Dr. Natasha Burgert, a pediatrician in Overland Park, Kansas.

The vaccines have proved highly safe and effective at reducing the risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death.

Overall, 63% of Americans are fully vaccinated. Among children 12 to 17, the rate is 54%.

COVID-19 shots for young children have been authorized in at least 12 countries. In Canada, where Pfizer shots were cleared for ages 5 to 11 in November, just 2% are fully vaccinated.

Snowstorms, tornadoes and other heavy weather in December are believed to have slowed the pace of vaccination in the U.S., along with the busy holiday season. Also, some parents are distrustful because the vaccine is so new, and many have other concerns.

Chicago mother Kendra Shaw has resisted shots for her two school-age children, saying she worries about possible risks and isn’t convinced the benefits are worth it.

But this week, her 10-year-old daughter pleaded to get vaccinated so she wouldn’t miss school, and her soon-to-be 7-year-old son asked for his shots so he could have a big birthday party.

Shaw scheduled their first doses for Wednesday but said: “I’m really on the fence.”

Daniel Kotzin, of Denver, said he is convinced he made the right decision not to vaccinate his 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son because most omicron cases seem to be mild.

“They are essentially at no risk of harm, so I really don’t understand the reason to vaccinate them,” he said.

Doctors say that kind of thinking is misguided and part of the problem.

“It’s true, kids in general do better than adults with COVID,” said Dr. Elizabeth Murray, a pediatric emergency medicine physician in Rochester, New York, and a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, “but ‘not too sick’ still can mean miserable with fevers and muscle aches for a week. It can also mean MIS-C or long COVID.”

MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome, is a rare but serious condition linked to COVID-19 that can affect many organs and typically requires hospitalization.

Authorities don’t think omicron is making children and adults more seriously ill than other variants, and say hospitalization rates are up partly because it is so much more contagious.

Some children have been admitted for conditions such as lung disease, diabetes and sickle cell disease that have worsened because of an omicron infection, doctors say.

Dr. Jesse Hackell, a pediatrician in Pomona, New York, said that at least 25% of his patients ages 5 to 11 are vaccinated, but that after an initial rush in the fall, the numbers have dwindled.

“It’s a tough sell,” he said. “We’re not ready” is a common comment, Hackell said. “When I ask, ‘What are you waiting for?’ I get kind of a shrug. I’ve had a few say, ’We’re not going to be the first million. We’ll wait to see what happens.”’

A frustrated Hackell said the government’s vaccination campaign is clearly struggling against misinformation and “pseudoscience,” the likes of which he has never seen before in his 40-plus years as a pediatrician.

He said the government needs to get tough and mandate the shots.

“If we could get every kid vaccinated across the board, it would go a long way. It wouldn’t end the pandemic, but it would end the severe disease,” Hackell said. “It could help turn the virus into nothing more serious than the common cold, and we can deal with that.’’

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Kids’ low COVID-19 vaccination rates called a ‘gut punch’ appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.