Measles outbreak worsens, leads to another death

The measles outbreak began in late January, and since then, West Texas has reported 480 cases of the disease and 56 hospitalizations. The outbreak has also spread to New Mexico, which has reported 54 cases, and Oklahoma, which has reported 10. The outbreak is also believed to have spread to Kansas and Mexico.

So far there are three known measles-related deaths related to the outbreak. One was an elementary-school-aged child in Texas, one was an adult in New Mexico, and the third was another young child who died Thursday from "what the child's doctor described as measles pulmonary failure," according to a statement from the Texas Department of State Health Services. None of the patients who have died were vaccinated against measles.

Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours, and up to nine out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if they're exposed, according to CDC. For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die, CDC says. The virus can also harm the body's immune defenses, which leaves it vulnerable to other pathogens.

Officials stress the importance of vaccination and care

In a news conference on Sunday, Manisha Patel, CDC's incident manager, said that the MMR vaccine is the best way to protect against measles and told patients in Gaines County, Texas that it was important not to "delay care" for a child who is sick with measles.

"Call your doctor and make sure you're talking to a healthcare professional who can guide you on those next steps," Patel said.

CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald on Sunday said that CDC teams arrived in Texas in early March and left on April 1, while a team led by Patel "was redeployed and arrived today" as ordered by Kennedy and requested by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

However, less than a month ago, Kennedy said that the measles vaccine causes deaths every year and pointed to the importance of nutrition and personal choice in getting the shot while also acknowledging that vaccines "not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity."

The MMR vaccine has been safely used for more than 60 years and is 97% effective against measles after two doses.

So far, misinformation about preventing and treating measles has been hindering the response to the outbreak, including claims pushed by Kennedy and holistic medicine supporters about vitamin A supplements and other treatments, despite warnings from doctors that such treatments should only be given under a physician's orders.

In a separate post, Kennedy promoted such treatments, saying he spent time with "extraordinary healers," doctors Richard Bartlett and Ben Edwards, who treated children with measles with aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin. The two drugs, a steroid and antibiotic, respectively, have not been proven to treat measles.

Experts express concern that measles outbreaks could be 'new normal' for US

Infectious disease experts have expressed concerns that the days when measles deaths in the United States were exceptionally rare could be over for now. Experts and health officials have warned that the current outbreak could go on for several more months if not a year.

"My concern is this does become a new normal for us," said Peter Hotez, an infectious disease expert and vaccine developer at Baylor College of Medicine.

"Unless we dramatically change course, drastically change course, it's going to be a problem," said Peter Marks, the former top vaccines regulator at FDA who recently left the agency. "This is what measles does."

"This is the epitome of an absolute needless death," Marks added. "These kids should get vaccinated — that's how you prevent people from dying of measles."

"With two, maybe three deaths already, I don't think it's implausible that we'll see more," said Caitlin Rivers, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. "The more cases there are, the more chances that some of those cases will be severe."

William Moss, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins' University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that the United States is primed for protracted measles outbreaks given the growing number of communities with vaccination rates below the 95% threshold needed to keep measles from spreading.

"That this was an 8-year-old girl means that this outbreak has been years in the making because of under-vaccination," Moss said. "And they got away with it because there were no importations into that community. And I'm sure there are many communities around the United States that are just kind of waiting, if you will, for an importation [of the virus]."

"But now that they have an ongoing outbreak, the message needs to be strong and clear, and it's just not coming, at least from the federal government, that unvaccinated children need to get vaccinated," Moss added. "It's hard to know how many deaths it's going to take before people realize the importance of this."