Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico reported new measles cases while the outbreak expands for the first time towards the center of Texas.
The United States has more measles cases this 2025 than in all 2024, according to the centers for the control and prevention of diseases in the United States (CDC). Other states with outbreaks, defined as three or more cases, include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. Since February, two Non -vaccinated people have died for re -related reasons.
The outbreak, which covers several states, confirms the fears of health experts that the virus will strengthen in other communities in the United States with low vaccination rates and that propagation could extend for a year. The World Health Organization (WHO) He said that cases in Mexico are linked to Texas’s outbreak.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that is transmitted by air and easily spreads when an infected person breathes, sneezes or cough. It is prevented by vaccination and considered eliminated from the United States since 2000.
This is what you need to know about measles in the United States.
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How many cases of measles are in Texas and New Mexico?
The outbreak in Texas began in February 2025. The state health authorities said 22 new measles cases arose, raising the total to 422 in 19 counties, most in western Texas. Erath and Brown counties, in the central part of the state, registered their first cases. Forty -two people have been hospitalized since the outbreak began.
New Mexico announced four new cases, which raises the total state to 48. New Mexico’s health authorities point out that cases are linked to the Texas outbreak according to genetic tests. Most are in Lea County, where two people have been hospitalized, and two are in Eddy County.
A school -age child died of measles In Texas at the end of February, and New Mexico reported on March 6 his first death related to measles in an adult.
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How many cases are there in Kansas?
Kansas has 23 cases in six counties of the southwest state. Kiowa and Stevens counties have six cases each, while those of Grant, Morton, Haskell and Gray have five or less.
The first case reported in the state, identified in Stevens County on March 13, is linked to the shoots of Texas and New Mexico according to genetic tests, said a spokesman for the State Health Department. But health authorities have not determined how the person was exposed.
How many cases are there in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma registered a new measles case, raising the figure to a total of eight confirmed and two probable cases. The first two probable cases were “associated” with the sprouts of western Texas and New Mexico, according to the State Health Department.
A spokesman for the State Health Department said they were confirmed Measles exposures In the counties of Tulsa and Rogers, but he did not mean in which counties there were cases.
How many cases are there in Ohio?
In Ohio, 10 measles were presented in Ashtabula County, in the northeast corner of the state, nine of which were reported in a week. The first case was in a non -vaccinated adult who had interacted with someone who had traveled abroad.
And in the center of Ohio, the Knox County authorities are tracking exhibitions of a person who visited in a contagious state. A measles outbreak in the center of Ohio became ill to 85 people in 2022.
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Where else is measles appearing in the United States?
Sammampion cases have also been reported in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.
CDC define an outbreak as three or more related cases. The agency had accounted for five groups that qualified as outbreaks in 2025.
In the United States, cases and outbreaks generally trace even someone who contracted the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination indices. In 2019, 1,274 cases occurred in the United States and the country almost lost its status of having eliminated the disease.
Do you need a reinforcement of the measles vaccine, paper and rubella?
The best way to avoid measles is to receive the measles vaccine, papers and rubella (MMR). The first dose for children between 12 and 15 months of age is recommended, and the second between four and six years.
People with a high risk of infection that vaccines received many years can consider the possibility of receiving a reinforcement if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weover of the Global Network Virus International Virus coalition. Among these people are relatives who live with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases due to underlying medical conditions.
Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” do not usually need to vaccinate themselves against measles, CDC said. Among the exclusion criteria are the written documentation of adequate vaccination in the past, the laboratory confirmation of a past infection or being born before 1957, when most people probably became naturally infected.
A doctor can order a laboratory test called MMR title to verify your antibody levels against measles, but health experts do not always recommend this route, and insurance coverage can vary.
Receiving another MMR vaccine is harmless if there are concerns about The decrease in immunitySay the CDC.
People who have documentation to have received a living vaccine against measles in the 1960s do not need to be revaccinded, but who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective vaccine against measles made of “dead” virus must be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. Among them are also the people who do not know what kind of vaccine they received.
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What are the symptoms of measles?
The measles first infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body, causing high fever, nasal secretion, cough, red and crying eyes and a rash.
The rash usually appears three to five days after the first symptoms, and begins as flat red spots on the face, then spreading towards the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever can exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), according to CDC.
Most children will recover from measles, but infection can cause dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, cerebral inflammation and death.
How can measles be treated?
There is no specific treatment for Measlesso doctors generally try to relieve symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
Why do vaccination rates import?
In communities with high vaccination rates – on top of 95% – diseases such as measles have more difficulty spreading through communities. This is called “group immunity.”
But children’s vaccination rates have decreased nationally from the pandemic and there are more parents who claim religious or personal consciousness exemptions to exempt their children from the required vaccines.
In 2024 there was an increase in measles cases in the United States that included an outbreak in Chicago in which more than 60 people became ill.
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