TRACKING EMERGING VIRUSES – June 2, 2025 – MEASLES
Measles is often seen as a routine childhood illness — a fever, a rash, and recovery — but complications are common. Even when it doesn’t kill, measles can cause lasting damage. It weakens the immune system, making people vulnerable to other infections for months or years. That means children who seem to recover may still face serious health risks long after the illness is gone.”
“Even today, measles-caused encephalitis (a dangerous inflammation of the brain) is difficult to treat. Although three-quarters of those who develop it survive the condition, out of those who survive, around one-third will sustain lifelong brain damage.1
“But evaluating the harm caused by measles isn’t just about the number of deaths. It’s also about what the disease does to the immune system and the chain of complications it can set off. Preventing measles matters — not only to stop the virus but to protect children from subsequent infections.”
“In this article, I explain how measles spreads and damages the body’s defenses, and why preventing it is still critical.”” (1)
“The big picture: The focus is particularly acute on childhood illnesses such as measles, chicken pox, invasive strep pneumoniae and pertussis, experts told Axios.
Polio and diphtheria, covered by the DTap vaccine, are also a concern. An unvaccinated 10-year-old boy died in Germany after contracting diphtheria, once the leading cause of premature death of children.
Rubella — a less easily transmitted infection covered by the MMR vaccine — can also be a threat, because of the way it can infect a fetus during pregnancy, said Catherine Troisi, professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and chair-elect of the International Network of Epidemiology in Policy.” (2)
“Many forget the damage done by diseases like whooping cough, measles and rubella. Not these families.
Devastating infectious diseases ran rampant in America, killing millions of children and leaving others with lifelong health problems. These illnesses were the main reason why nearly one in five children in 1900 never made it to their fifth birthday.
Over the next century, vaccines virtually wiped out long-feared scourges like polio and measles and drastically reduced the toll of many others. Today, however, some preventable, contagious diseases are making a comeback as vaccine hesitancy pushes immunization rates down. And well-established vaccines are facing suspicion even from public officials, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, running the federal health department.
“This concern, this hesitancy, these questions about vaccines are a consequence of the great success of the vaccines – because they eliminated the diseases,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “If you’re not familiar with the disease, you don’t respect or even fear it. And therefore you don’t value the vaccine.” (3)
Myths About Measles Doctors Want You to Stop Believing
https://www.prevention.com/health/health-conditions/a64438923/myths-about-measles/
New Mexico health officials reported the first measles cases at a detention facility
The New Mexico Department of Health on Thursday reported the first cases of measles at the Luna County Detention Center in Deming. Five inmates tested positive for the disease, according to a NMDOH news release.
“The cases at Luna County Detention Center are a stark reminder that the measles outbreak in New Mexico is not over,” state medical epidemiologist Dr. Chad Smelser said in a statement. “We urge everyone in New Mexico, especially Luna County residents, to ensure that they are fully vaccinated against measles.”
According to the health department, the facility currently houses approximately 400 people and employs 100 staff members. NMDOH will be supply the facility with personal protection equipment, test kits and measles vaccines.” (4)
“A grim milestone: U.S. is on the cusp of losing its official measles elimination status.”
“Measles infections in the U.S. have reached nearly 1,200 in 2025 as cases continue to crop up in 35 states. At least 3% of those cases have been in people who received two doses of the MMR measles vaccine, meaning they were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2% of confirmed measles cases, the person had received one MMR dose.
The last measles outbreak of a similar scale occurred in 2019, when a total of 1,274 cases were confirmed across the country. However, 2025 is shaping up to be the largest outbreak in 25 years. There have been three confirmed measles deaths, two children and one adult, thus far in 2025.
Measles vaccines are 97% effective at preventing measles after two doses and 93% after one dose, according to the CDC. The disease was previously eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, meaning there was no spread and new cases were only those contracted from abroad. Vaccine rates have declined by an average of 2.67% in most U.S. counties over the past five years, according to data published by John Hopkins University, resulting in a growing number of states moving further away from the 95% herd immunity threshold.” (5)
“The current surge in American measles cases is not driven by immigration but by declining vaccination coverage and domestic transmission. Most cases originate from American residents who traveled abroad and returned infected.
Because measles is extremely contagious, around 95% of the population should have immunity to prevent outbreaks, but national vaccination rates fall short. In 2023, less than 93% of children had two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, and coverage is even lower in certain communities.
These estimates also exclude some undocumented and homeschooled children, who are less likely to receive vaccines, leaving numerous unprotected clusters. This year, 97% of measles cases occurred in individuals who were not vaccinated.”
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted routine vaccinations and amplified public skepticism about all vaccines. Even after pandemic restrictions were lifted, MMR vaccine uptake has continued to decline, fueled by political polarization and growing far-right ideologies that promote distrust of science and public health.”
“Additionally, rising anti-immigration sentiment affects healthcare access for undocumented immigrants, who face barriers like cost, fears of deportation, and language obstacles.” (6)
“I Feel Like I’ve Been Lied To’: When a Measles Outbreak Hits Home”
“He was a chiropractor by training, but in a remote part of West Texas with limited medical care, Kiley Timmons had become a first stop for whatever hurt. Ear infections. Labor pains. Oil workers who arrived with broken ribs and farmers with bulging discs. For more than a decade, Kiley, 48, had seen 20 patients each day at his small clinic located between a church and a gas station in Brownfield, population 8,500. He treated what he could, referred others to physicians and prayed over the rest.”
His wife, Carrollyn, had recently tested positive for Covid, but her symptoms eased as Kiley’s intensified. He went to a doctor at the beginning of April for a viral panel, but every result came back negative. The doctor decided to test for the remote possibility of measles, since there was a large outbreak spreading through a Mennonite community 40 miles away, but Kiley was vaccinated.
“I feel like I’m dying,” Kiley texted a friend. He couldn’t hold down food or water. He had already lost 10 pounds. His chest went numb, and his arms began to tingle. His oxygen was dropping dangerously low when he finally got the results.
“Positive for measles,” he wrote to his sister, in mid-April. “Just miserable. I can’t believe this.””
“But what frightened Kiley more than the potential spread was the severity of the disease: About one in five unvaccinated people with measles will be hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as one in 20 children contracts a secondary pneumonia infection. More than one in 1,000 dies. Measles stops spreading when 95 percent of a community is immune, but national vaccination rates for children have fallen to less than 92 percent. In parts of West Texas, they’ve dropped below 80.” (7)
“A Texas Boy Needed Protection From Measles. The Vaccine Cost $1,400”
“In the early days of the West Texas measles outbreak, Thang Nguyen eyed the rising number of cases and worried. His 4-year-old son was at risk because he had received only the first of the vaccine’s two doses.
So, in mid-March, he took his family to a primary care clinic at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
By the end of the visit, his son, Anh Hoang, had received one shot protecting against four illnesses — measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox. He also received a second shot against tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough, as well as a flu shot. His twin daughters, who had already had their measles vaccinations, got other immunizations.”
“Then the bills came.”
“The Final Bill. UTMB billed $2,532 for the boy’s office visit and three shots. The MMRV shot alone was billed at $1,422, plus $161 for administering it.”
“In mid-May, UTMB sent Nguyen a revised bill for his son’s office visit. It applied a 50% self-pay discount, which its website says is offered to those who are uninsured. His revised total was $1,266, $711 of which was for the MMRV vaccination.
“I expected them to waive the vaccination cost for my children or at least reduce it more, especially for MMRV vaccine,” said Nguyen, noting that his family would still be strapped trying to pay their bills.
After Pickering spoke with KFF Health News, a customer service representative reached out to Nguyen, waiving the cost of the vaccines. His new bill was $202.75 for his son’s office visit, as well as similarly smaller amounts for his daughters’ medical care.” (8)
(1)Measles leaves children vulnerable to other diseases for years, By Saloni Dattani, https://ourworldindata.org/measles-increases-disease-risk
(2) New docs get schooled in old diseases as vax rates fall, by Tina Reed, https://www.axios.com/2025/06/30/new-docs-get-schooled-in-old-diseases-as-vax-rates-fall
(3) Many forget the damage done by diseases like whooping cough, measles and rubella. Not these families, Associated Press, https://www.dailynews.com/2025/07/01/vaccine-preventable-diseases/amp/
(4) Five inmates test positive for measles at Luna County Detention Center, By: Source NM Staff, https://sourcenm.com/briefs/five-inmates-test-positive-for-measles-at-luna-county-detention-center/
(5) A grim milestone: U.S. is on the cusp of losing its official measles elimination status. By Adam Ratner, https://www.statnews.com/2025/06/24/us-measles-elimination-status-vaccine-rates-cdc-mmr-rate/
(6) Why doctors say measles isn’t just back, it’s a warning sign for us all, By Priyanjana Pramanik, https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250617/Why-doctors-say-measles-isne28099t-just-back-ite28099s-a-warning-sign-for-us-all.aspx
(7)I Feel Like I’ve Been Lied To’: When a Measles Outbreak Hits Home, By Eli Saslow, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/us/i-feel-like-ive-been-lied-to-when-a-measles-outbreak-hits-home.html
(8)A Texas Boy Needed Protection From Measles. The Vaccine Cost $1,400, By Julie Appleby, https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/bill-of-the-month-texas-measles-vaccine-insurance-charge-outbreak-international/
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai