Nearly 100 Measles Cases Have Been Reported in Texas
1 min read
Summary
Measles is a contagious disease, with 90 cases having been reported in Texas, causing its worst outbreak in over 30 years.
At least 16 people have been hospitalised, and nine cases have been reported in neighbouring New Mexico.
The outbreak is concentrated in the northwest of the state, with 77 of the cases being children, 26 of whom are four years old or younger.
Measles once killed 2.6 million worldwide, with 12,000 of these victims in the Americas.
Following the rollout of the measles vaccine in the US in 1963, cases fell by 97 per cent between 1965 and 1968, and worldwide cases fell by 95 per cent between 1980 and 2015 thanks to the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine.
However, in 2024, 285 cases were reported in the US, the most since 2019, and the current outbreak in Texas is primarily among unvaccinated people.
This comes after Robert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist, was appointed head of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
